A and E "patient stacking" lunacy

A&E patients 'left in ambulances for hours'

Extract from Telegraph article:

"Seriously ill patients are left for hours in ambulances instead of being immediately admitted to accident and emergency departments to meet a Government target on treatment times, it was claimed yesterday.

The practice of "patient stacking" has left some waiting for up to five hours because A&E units have refused to admit them until they can be treated within the four-hour time limit.

Unison, the public sector union, said the practice poses a danger to other patients because ambulances detained as "waiting rooms" cannot answer new 999 calls.

Mary Maguire, a spokesman for the union, said: "This happens time and time again. It is an appalling waste of resources. We should not use ambulances as waiting rooms.

"A 16-year-old terminally ill cancer patient died after waiting over an hour for an ambulance to transfer him. Three ambulances could have reached him but they were tied up waiting to hand over patients to A&E."

Dr Steve Field, the chairman of the Royal College of GPs, called the situation ''entirely inappropriate and unacceptable".

Evidence of patient stacking is revealed in the official ''turnaround time" data released by seven of England's 11 regional ambulance services.

The figures show that over the past 15 months at least 44,000 delays were reported by the ambulance services. In some cases the delays were up to five hours."

This "patient stacking" is lunacy!

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Dirty ambulances help to spread superbugs, claims Unison union

Dirty ambulances help spread superbugs, claims union

Extract from The Guardian:

"NHS ambulances could be helping to spread potentially deadly infections such as MRSA, a union said today.

Poor cleaning arrangements and a lack of resources are exacerbating the problem, a nationwide Unison survey found.

Experts warned there had been little progress since the issue was raised two years ago.

Unison officials called for "urgent action" and the removal of dirty ambulances from service for cleaning.

"Ambulance cleanliness is a key factor in the battle against healthcare-related infections and the standards laid down should be strictly applied and monitored," said Sam Oestreicher, Unison's national officer for ambulance staff.

"The guidance on ambulance infection control is comprehensive, but in practice the essential resources necessary to keep vehicles clean and infection-free are not being provided.

"In many trusts, ambulance crews are responsible for cleaning their own vehicles and this is a waste of their time and training.

"They should be out there saving lives, not mopping out the back of a dirty ambulance.""

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NHS jobs: - big bonuses for some, job cuts for others

Bureaucrats' bonuses rise as NHS jobs cut - Sunday Telegraph

Extract:

"Bonuses awarded to NHS bureaucrats have soared by nearly a third as thousands of health workers have lost their jobs.

Nearly £1.5 million was paid in bonuses to 231 "senior" civil servants in the Department of Health and related agencies last financial year, a rise of 29 per cent.

NHS trade unions criticised the bonuses, worth an average £6,300 - half a year's pay for many health staff. During the same year, 27,000 NHS posts were cut, with widespread redundancies.

On Friday, Unison, the biggest NHS union, followed the Royal College of Nursing by agreeing to ballot members on industrial action if the Government fails to improve its annual pay offer of 1.9 per cent for most front-line workers.

Karen Jennings, the head of health at Unison, said the bonuses were "totally unfair" and left front-line staff "feeling like second-class citizens". Peter Carter, the general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, said he was "stunned" that the Government could behave with such "crass insensitivity"."


Lose weight by eating less salt! - Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!
See my website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/
Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection
(The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

Richard Granger, the chief executive of Connecting for Health, the over-budget NHS IT project, has said he will leave his post in October.

Anger as best paid civil servant goes - Sunday Telegraph

Extract:

"Britain's best-paid civil servant is to quit as the head of NHS information technology, claiming the new, accident-prone computer system is on track.

Richard Granger, the chief executive of Connecting for Health, said he would leave the post, and its £290,000-a-year salary, in October. "There is no doubt about the programme's achievability," said Mr Granger, who took up the role in October 2002. "Most of the building blocks are now in place."

Karen Jennings, the head of health at Unison, the NHS's biggest trade union, said Mr Granger's optimism was at odds with the views of the "majority of NHS staff".

She said: "Technically... things are finally coming together. But lessons must be learned from the way these over-ambitious, big-bang IT projects have been brought in late and so over-budget.""

Health minister, Andy Burnham, was booed at Unison union conference

Health minister booed at union conference - The Argus

Extract:

"A minister was booed and heckled by health workers todaywhen he tried to defend the Government's policies on the NHS which threaten to spark a summer of strikes.

Health Minister Andy Burnham faced a wall of silence when he stood up to address Unison's health workers' conference in Brighton.

Dozens of delegates held up posters which read: "Low pay, no way, NHS here to stay."

Then there was regular heckling and booing and some of the delegates laughed at parts of the minister's speech."

This reception for Andy Burnham was entirely predictable. - See my previous blog entry.

I'm no fan of Andy Burnham either...)o: - See my webpage http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html


Lose weight by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!
See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
(The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)