This is by way of an update and my commentary on developments
at Ashford and St. Peter’s Hospitals NHS Trust.
In a nutshell, the two rehab wards for elderly people at
Ashford have closed by now and people too well to be on a hospital ward but too
ill to go home are likely to be heading elsewhere.
Firstly, patients of all ages are getting sent home too early
after operations; there’s a reliance on relatives or friends to ‘help out’ when
often no one is available.
Secondly, as the Union points out, this is really a hidden
privatisation of services.
Thirdly, it’s a further downgrading of Ashford Hospital. Once
a fine teaching hospital with its own A and E, it is now a complex of flats and
a Tesco with a hospital attached.
Fourthly, and saddest of all, NHS hospitals seem unable to
properly deal with the rehabilitation of the elderly which is very specialised
work which requires continuity of staff, a real ethos to help the elderly and
an ability to care.
Unfortunately, the average NHS ward has such a changeover of
staff and such a reliance on Agency temps to make up the numbers that long term
care is problematic.
My own experiences with Wexham Park Hospital, Slough last
year bear this out.
This failing hospital very nearly killed my Mum, failing to
treat her properly over three long and very unpleasant weeks on the notorious Ward
17.
By then unable to walk, she was then sent to the Upton
Community Hospital, Upton, Slough to ‘recover’.
This is run by a separate Trust and has a completely
different ethos and way of working. It took two months of really hard work but they
were open to restoring the treatment that Wexham had changed and gradually got
her back on her feet.
It seems to be general that the elderly are being failed by
NHS hospitals – Ashford and St. Peter’s are just accepting the inevitable.
Get Surrey
Ward
closures announced at Ashford Hospital following CCG review
16 June
2015
By Matt Strudwick
The closure
of two of Ashford Hospital’s wards, used by the elderly for rehabilitation
care, is another step to privatising the NHS, according to a trade union.
The
Wordsworth and Fielding wards will close by the end of this month after a review
carried out by the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) found patients recover
better away from acute hospitals.
Patients
will now be placed in rehabilitation care at Walton Community Hospital, Woking
Hospital, nursing homes and care at home.
Stephanie
Cesana, Unison regional organiser, said by putting contracts out to the private
sector it showed everything is about savings.
“It’s a
further example of the creeping privatisation in the NHS,” she said.
“This
Government is determined to chip away at the NHS until all services have been
privatised. It’s worrying and disappointing.”
Staff at
the two wards have been moved to alternative positions within the trust.
Christine
Armitage, assistant director of therapies at Ashford and St Peter’s Hospitals
NHS Foundation Trust said the use of nursing home beds would act as a step
between nursing and patients going home.
“Within a
nursing home, a lot of those patients don’t need intensive therapy,” she said.
“They need a bit of time and someone there to get stronger and to regain
confidence. That’s the idea of those beds.”
The ward
closures will lead to a reduction of 43 beds at the hospital, but the trust
said it is still working on its strategy as to what to do with the empty space.
Heather
Caudle, chief nurse at the trust, said: “We know keeping patients in hospital
for long periods of time is not necessarily in their best interests, particularly
older, frail patients, and this can actually lead to a deterioration in their
wellbeing as well as a reduction in independence.”
One-to-one
The trust
said Ashford Hospital would still provide a walk-in centre and will continue to
provide stroke rehabilitation care at its Chaucer ward and orthopaedic care at
its Dickens ward.
“This is no
reflection on the excellent job our staff have been doing for patients at
Ashford Hospital,” she said. “These changes are purely focused on what is the
best environment for this specific cohort of patients.”
On May 30,
St Peter’s Hospital shut its Ambulatory Emergency Care Unit (AECU) which had
been set up to provide urgent assessment and treatment for patients who were
brought to hospital by ambulance. The trust said it had not seen the expected
patient numbers or flow. The referral service for GPs, which was in place
through the AECU, will now run from the Medical Assessment Unit.
Of course, the fact that CCG found that patients recover
better out of hospital isn’t an argument for closing wards – it’s an argument for
changing the system and adopting best practice instead.
Neil Harris
(a don’t stop till you drop production)
