NHS chaos will be turned into catastrophe
We are hugely concerned about the crisis in our hospitals and fear that Future Fit will make a bad situation worse.
In the last few weeks, on top of the ongoing enquiry into preventable deaths in the maternity units at RSH and PRH, the Care Quality Commission (the independent regulator of health care in England) has issued two enforcement notices on the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospitals’ Trust for Accident & Emergency and for Maternity Services.
During the CQCs recent visit, its inspectors found patients were “boarded” in inappropriate areas without access to call bells or oxygen and in wards so crowded that resuscitation trolleys were unable to get through.
During their visit, inspectors had to come to the aid of patients because there weren’t enough nursing staff, and in one case, they found a high dependency unit with no staff at all for 15 minutes.
A letter from the CQC to SaTH reported that “staff across all areas and grades raised concerns about this practice (boarding) and told us they felt it was unsafe, undignified, and disgusting”.
The Care Quality Commission comments point to the fact that there are, currently, not enough beds and not enough nursing staff in our hospitals.
It highlighted that, because of this, seriously ill people are receiving woefully substandard care, despite the very best efforts of the dedicated nursing staff working on the front line under extremely challenging circumstances.
There is little doubt that our hospitals are suffering from chronic under-funding and that Government cuts are contributing to the crisis that is unfolding in our local NHS.
But it is also clear that the managers of the Shrewsbury & Telford Hospitals’ Trust have to shoulder some of the blame for historic and recent failures.
As the public consultation on SaTH’s so-called “Future Fit” ends it is obvious that something has gone badly wrong at our local hospitals. Future Fit proposes less beds and less nurses than we currently have, and reducing the number of A&Es from two to one – it is not the answer.
SaTH is playing with fire – it may seem that things couldn’t get any worse for our local hospitals but Future Fit will turn the existing crisis into a catastrophe – we call upon our Clinical Commissioning Groups and NHS England to halt Future Fit and ensure that we get the safe, properly funded health care that we need.
Teresa Adams
Shrewsbury Labour Party Women’s Forum
