This shouldn’t come as a surprise – St. Peter’s Accident and
Emergency had to announce a ‘Major Emergency’ on 5th January 2015.
It shouldn’t be a surprise because demand for A and E rises every winter,
there is an epdemic of a ‘Killer Flu’ that isn’t stopped by flu injections this year and
most importantly….they weren’t keeping to the 4 hour waiting time limit in the
summer.
The result? cancelled planned operations which can be catastrophic for the people concerned.
The problem? Too many staff cutbacks which means not enough general wards in winter so people in A and E can't be moved out quickly enough.
The result? cancelled planned operations which can be catastrophic for the people concerned.
The problem? Too many staff cutbacks which means not enough general wards in winter so people in A and E can't be moved out quickly enough.
Ashford and
St Peter's emergency to last at least 24 hours (From Surrey Comet)
First published Tuesday 6 January 2015 in News
by Ellie Cambridge, Reporter
Ashford and
St Peter’s Hospital NHS Foundation Trust has struggled to keep up with the
demand this week, declaring a major incident that is likely to last for at
least the next 24 hours and warning people to stay away from accident and emergency
unless it is a real emergency.
This comes
as data for England was published today by the NHS for the week ending December
28. Christmas is traditionally a busy time for hospitals and this data showed
the trust had not met the Government target of seeing 95 per cent of admissions
to A&E in four hours, having seen 85.6 per cent in four hours.
The number
of patients spending between four and 12 hours waiting to be admittedin that
week were 88.
Country-wide
figures showed A&E departments had flagged under huge demand, seeing the
worst national performance for 10 years.
A spokesman
for the trust said: “Declaring a major incident (which we did at the weekend)
allows us to mobilise additional staff and take a more targeted approach in how
we manage outpatient clinics and planned operations and this is
resulting
in an improving situation [today January 6] within our hospitals.”
An urgent
message issued by the trust yesterday continued today as it faced “unprecedented
demand” and needs to prioritise their most urgent patients.
In a
statement online, it said: “We are currently under severe pressure - please don’t
come to A&E unless you are a real emergency.
“Non-emergency
patients are likely to have an extremely long wait and will be taking staff
away from caring for patients who need emergency or lifesaving care.” Some
appointments were cancelled on January 5 with patients affected called and informed.
No appointments
were cancelled today.
Chief
executive Suzanne Rankin said: “We expect to remain at major incident status
for at least the next 24 hours to allow the actions we are taking to take full
effect.
“I would
like to praise and thank colleagues in the hospital who have been working
extremely hard on behalf of patients to meet this demand.”
Other
trusts throughout the country have faced similar difficulties, with hospitals
in north Yorkshire, Staffordshire and Gloucestershire struggling to cope with
the demand and declaring a major incident.
Neil Harris
(a don’t stop till you drop production)
Contact me: neilwithpromisstokeep@gmail.com
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