NHSforready winter?
It is easy to forget the harsh winter of 2012/2013 having had the high temperatures during the summer. However, the Commons Health Select Committee is looking to the coming winter and asking how prepared the NHS is for it.
Although NHS England has said it was considering various measures to take pressure off A&E units ahead of the cold season, MP’s say that they are confused about what is being done. The Committee chairman, Stephen Dorrell, has said that the system is “flying blind” without adequate information about the nature of the demands being placed on it. The main area of concern to the Committee is the staffing levels and emergency departments. They have found that only 17% of emergency departments are managing to provide 16 hours consultant coverage during the working week. It has been reported that the lack of consultants is compounding hospitals’ difficulties in dealing with complex caseloads. As a result of the lack of consultants junior doctors are assessing and then reassessing patients which delays decisions by a senior doctor. The new 111 telephone health advice system which was introduced to alleviate the pressure on A&E departments has had the opposite effect. Patients who have been unsatisfied with the experience of the advice system have gone to their local A&E rather than seeking treatment elsewhere. The Committee is particularly mindful of the pressures which will build during next winter and it believes that there is much more the primary care system could do to prevent unnecessary visits to A&E. It has recommended the creation of more urgent care centres to allow A&E departments to focus on the most seriously ill. It has also suggested that paramedics employed by ambulance services need to be able to treat more patients when they assess them. As is to be expected the finding of the Committee has sparked intense political debate with each party blaming the other for the current state of the NHS. Labour’s Andy Burnham has said that with almost 5,000 nursing posts being cut since 2010 the current government are taking unacceptable risks with patient care. While the coalition argue that the creation of a £3.8 billion annual fund to drive better integration of health and social care services would help force the NHS to deliver services differently. While Barbara Hakin the Chief Operating Officer of NHS England insists that the NHS would be fine this winte r it is difficult to see how this will be the case. In my view practical solutions to relieve the crisis in A&E departments and across the NHS require implementation as a matter of urgency. No amount of political point scoring will help the NHS to deliver a better service. By Katy Meade
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the lack of consultants is compounding hospitals’ difficulties.
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