05.01.15
Health service struggling to cope with surge in emergency care demand
The health service is bursting at the seams as it struggles to cope with demand, with a foundation trust in Gloucester declaring its second major incident in a month and South Western Ambulance Service dealing with 38% increase in call-outs over Christmas.
Gloucestershire Royal Hospital and Cheltenham General Hospital, both part of Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS FT, are experiencing a large influx of non-urgent patients, causing a severe backlog.
According to a trust spokesman about 30% of incoming patients had "non-urgent ailments”, while another factor contributing to the problem was the high number of "elderly patients being admitted, whose needs are often more complex".
The same trust also declared a majored incident last month when there were no spare beds available. At the time the trust’s chief executive, Dr Frank Harsent, publically criticised the county’s healthcare system for letting patients down.
At a meeting of healthcare providers in the area meeting to address the crisis he said: "If the system isn't broken, why did I have to declare a major incident for the first time in 20 years in the job? I have never had to do that before.
"We managed to get hold of agency staff and we made room to cope with it, but there was still a large number of people in A&E who needed beds. The reality is that we need to move away from people feeling angry and disappointed and instead recognise that the system is not working. There is a danger here that we are in denial."
Meanwhile Ashford and St Peter’s Hospital Foundation Trust in Surrey had to cancel the majority of its outpatient appointments today as it struggles to cope with the influx of emergency patients.
The hospital said it was under severe pressure which meant any non-emergency patients would face an "extremely long wait".
It also plans to cancel a number of planned operations on Tuesday.
A spokeswoman said: "Because of the severe pressure the hospital trust is under, which includes severe pressure on beds, we are cancelling the majority of outpatient appointments on Monday."
The South West Ambulance Service has also reported that it received a 38% increase in calls over the Christmas period and was on “standby” to declare a major incident on Saturday 27 December. On that day it dealt with 3,205 incidents - 883 more than on the same Saturday in 2013.
Across Christmas Day, Boxing Day, New Year's Eve, New Year's Day and the weekend in-between, the service dealt with a total of 17,463 incidents over the phone. During the same six days a year ago the figure was 22% lower, at 14,262.
NHS England chief executive Simon Stevens believes that accesses to emergency care is in urgent need of a redesign, especially based on the evidence of the winter period.
“I think what we see on the back of the last month, or six weeks, is that the health service can’t just continue having to keep up. I think we’ve got to actually redesign quite radically what the ways into the health service are,” he said.
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