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NHS Winter Crisis.
Patient forced to wait FOUR DAYS for a bed and child sleeps on a chair in 'grossly overcrowded' A&E as hospitals run out of oxygen and mortuaries near capacity amid NHS winter crisis
The unnamed patient was brought to Swindon's Great Western Hospital by ambulance last week but was left waiting on a gurney for four days while staff urgently tried to source an available bed. One clinician at Great Western Hospital told the Sunday Times: 'We're broken and nobody is listening,' while Jon Westbrook, the hospital's chief medical officer, wrote in a leaked email to staff: 'We are seeing case numbers and [sickness] that we have not seen previously in our clinical careers.' Meanwhile, ambulance staff are being urged to conserve oxygen supplies (top right) due to a surge in demand for portable oxygen in A&E departments which has seen stock run dangerously low in several hospitals around the country (patients lie on the floor in Aintree hospital left, inset, queue of ambulances outside hospital right)
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11589953/Patient-forced-wait-99-HOURS-bed-child-sleeps-chair-grossly-overcrowded-E.html
The unnamed patient was brought to Swindon's Great Western Hospital by ambulance last week but was left waiting on a gurney for four days while staff urgently tried to source an available bed. One clinician at Great Western Hospital told the Sunday Times: 'We're broken and nobody is listening,' while Jon Westbrook, the hospital's chief medical officer, wrote in a leaked email to staff: 'We are seeing case numbers and [sickness] that we have not seen previously in our clinical careers.' Meanwhile, ambulance staff are being urged to conserve oxygen supplies (top right) due to a surge in demand for portable oxygen in A&E departments which has seen stock run dangerously low in several hospitals around the country (patients lie on the floor in Aintree hospital left, inset, queue of ambulances outside hospital right)
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11589953/Patient-forced-wait-99-HOURS-bed-child-sleeps-chair-grossly-overcrowded-E.html
Comments
There are people in very senior positions within the NHS who, frankly, do not live in the real world. Who just believe that the solution to every single problem within the NHS is to throw limitless money at it. Rather than make any attempt to do what they are being paid for.
In every business facing challenges (that would be pretty much every single one) the key issues can normally be summed up as:-
1. How can we get more resources; and
2. How can we better use the resources we have
The NHS could do with bigger increases than it is getting, in terms of pay, working conditions, all sorts. But let's not forget the resources it currently has:-
(1) A budget in excess of £150 Billion. That is £150,000,000,000. Or more than £2,200 from every man, woman and child in this country
(2) The NHS always mentions how many vacancies it has. But rarely mentions the employees it does have. 1.5 million employees. Including over 120,000 doctors, and over 300,000 nurses.
There is a "crisis" every single Winter in A & E. It's not like it is unexpected. It's just that there is inadequate preparation every single year. By people like the President of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine. Who, to use his own words, "needs to get a grip on this".
More money is the forever call. But it does not deal with the now. It is the people in charge of the massive resources that need to provide forward planning for the inevitable spikes in demand. Every other business recognises this, and plans accordingly. Not seek to blame others for their failure to manage.
Some simple examples:-
1. Have certain medical staff who transfer to A & E for 3 months of the year
2. Change employment contracts so that A & E staff are limited as to how much holiday they can take in the Winter
3. Create additional A & E hospitals/sizes in Winter to cope with the increased demand
It's not the Staff at fault. It is the Management.
They seem to be no closer to finding a solution.
In the private sector heads would roll until a solution was found.
Bed blocking has been going on for years.
Again no solution.
Staff shortages for years.
How would they pay the wages of 133,000 staff if they could find them?
Yet we see stories of them putting nurses up in hotels for months, and paying consultants £5,200 per shift.
They pay through the nose for agency workers.
These agency workers are often NHS that have left, and joined an agency in order to get paid more.
So why employ agency staff?
If they didnt employ them there would be no agencies
They get robbed of billions of pounds every year, in equipment, fraud, being overcharged, etc.
The NHS management are not fit for purpose.
Compare it to Amazon.
I ordered a £2.36 mouse mat the other day, and got it 2 days later, on a free delivery, even in the Winter.
Any well run business has vacancies. People hand in their notice. People get promoted. There is a vacancy while they are working their notice, or before they start their new role within the NHS. But only one for the future.
Of course there are genuinely unfilled vacancies. With no-one in post. But nothing like as many as that 133,000.
This data shows there are roughly: 159,000 temporary staff working in the NHS, often referred to as ‘bank’ or ‘agency’ staff. 174,000 staff working in General Practice. 42,000 of these were GP doctors. 24,000 dentists in private practice who provide NHS-funded treatment. How much is a UK nurse salary? Share
How many people do the NHS employ each year? – Wise-Answer
wise-answer.com/how-many-people-do-the-nhs-employ-each-year/
Whatever happened to the 40 new hospitals that Boris promised us in 2020? Or the upgrades to 142 A & E Departments?
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/pm-confirms-37-billion-for-40-hospitals-in-biggest-hospital-building-programme-in-a-generation
133,000 vacancies, so current staffing rate is over 91%. If you can't run your business with that staffing level something is wrong.
Average salary for a nurse is £33,000 plus, it will be £35,000 per annum in 2023, average GP salary £82,000 plus. Quite a few GPs in bigger surgeries don't work full time, evenings, weekends etc because they can earn £80,000 working part time.
Many NHS employees have taken their final salary NHS pensions in the last few years and gone back working part time, for the NHS. Often this is not due to the 'pressure of work' quoted in the press but due to their pensions being at a level where they exceeded the Lifetime Allowance (currently £1,073,100) and therefore further accrual would result in further charges of up to 55%.
What about the great British public? They don't help themselves do they? Massive drains on the NHS caused by smoking, drinking, obesity, drug use, poor diet, lack of exercise, overpopulation. The public needs to be educated/encouraged to look after themselves better and stop thinking that they can do what they want because the NHS is there to 'cure' and problems they develop.
And don't get me started about big pharma, do they don't want people cured? After all there's no money in healthy people.
There are less than 1 million in "non clinical" positions, unless you define "clinically" very narrowly. Many of the "nursing" staff are not actually qualified nurses-there are many people whose role is to assist the Nurses. Many others have roles that are essential for patient care-from porters, to cleaners, to food production etc. Still remains true that there are an enormous amount of staff who are not involved in patient care.
The Pension bit? Only an issue at Senior Levels. But it is also true to say that one of the reasons for increased pay for "bank" staff is that they often have reduced benefits.
Agree about the Public's duties. But their options for lower level medical care have been reduced Monday-Friday in office hours, and nearly removed in other hours. Which is part of the reason for increased ambulance/hospital usage.
Big pharma? I trust them about as much as you
Consultant PROFESSOR ROB GALLOWAY shares his six-point prescription to end Britain's A&E
PROFESSOR ROB GALLOWAY: As an A&E doctor for 22 years, I have never known anything like this: the NHS is in crisis. In every hospital up and down the country, patients can be waiting hours in A&E to get treatment, and then many more hours, or days, to get a bed on a ward. Many of them are stuck in corridors in all states of distress - not only is this undignified but the care is inadequate as a result. They are not as closely observed as they should be and, in many cases, this means the subtle signs of deterioration are missed. Their care is delayed and this results in patients who shouldn't die, dying. The Royal College of Emergency Medicine estimates that there are currently 300-500 avoidable deaths a week in the UK because of the failings in emergency care.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-11593201/Consultant-PROFESSOR-ROB-GALLOWAY-shares-six-point-prescription-end-Britains-E-crisis.html
Imagine this is any FTSE 100 Company. With you, the taxpayer, as its Shareholders. Because Government only spends your money.
The Senior Management present you with no proposals whatsoever as to how they are going to manage changing needs and priorities. They merely present these problems as though they are nothing to do with Senior Management. And entirely the fault of the Shareholders. And lack of funding.
And the Staff simultaneously expect massive pay rises, considerably increased staffing, and believe this is irrelevant as to the destination of any additional funding. And strike while complaining that backlogs are building.
What part of Senior Management feels able to say "We must act now" while they are completely failing to act?
Like the 1% increase to NI.
An increase in funding for social care would relieve the bed blocking problem, and improve ambulance delays.
I appreciate that the proceeds of the increase were destined to fund the NHS black hole initially, before being diverted to social care.
Had the increase gone ahead, and immediately used to fund social care, we would have seen immediate improvements.
I am sure that many members of the general public would have been happy to pay the increase, and the alternative is unacceptable.
We just seem to be going backwards.
The Government has chosen to seek to increase Social Care Funding by a stupid alternative. Firstly, it has made increased funding a Local, as opposed to a National, problem. Secondly, this has placed the burden disproportionately on the poor, rather than the rich. Via the Adult Social Care Precept.
I live in a poor area, Tendring. One of the highest proportions of state-funded Care Homes in the country. Consequently, an extra 2% Council Tax rise for everyone in Tendring. Including Band A. This year. And every year. Whereas extremely wealthy parts of London, Surrey etc have few state-funded Care Homes. Or even none. So a Band G person living in Mayfair pays £0 towards it.
This is "levelling up"?
When you say "many members of the general public" it does not appear to include the fabulously wealthy, the non-doms-you know, the people who can most easily afford it.
Patients are dying today waiting for ambulances that are delayed due to bed blocking.