National Health Service

[SteveH]

Two stories worth reading in full...............both from the Pioneer

OVER 20 different organisations have come together to call for a complete overhaul of the national health service in Wales.
It comes after the worst ever performance figures for hospital emergency departments and the ambulance service in Wales were published, and warnings from doctors in North Wales that patients are dying in ambulances and waiting rooms due to overcrowding.

A group of 22 organisations working across health and social care have come together to call for a single national body with strategic oversight of NHS Wales to drive improvements in patient care and hold health boards to account.

cont  https://www.northwalespioneer.co.uk/news/19732494.calls-major-overhaul-welsh-nhs/


The Welsh Ambulance Service is still feeling the affects of the pandemic as pressure continues to increase in Emergency Departments.
In documents shown to the committee, the Betsi Cadwaladr Health Board lost 6,000 handover hours because of delays, almost double the nearest health board and just under 48% of urgent emergency calls had been responded to in the eight minute time frame, almost 20% below the Ambulance service target.

"We have impacts of the pandemic still playing out, the pandemic very much hasn't gone away," he said.

"We've got high levels of community prevalence of covid. Our people, our staff, our volunteers are the community, so with high community prevalence we have higher than usual sickness or absence rates. Double what we'd expect them to be."

cont https://www.northwalespioneer.co.uk/news/19732492.no-let-pressure-welsh-ambulance-service/

[SteveH]

"NHS staff have run off adrenalin for the past year and that adrenalin is running out. We're all coming to the point where we're all just crashing and burning out."

Emily Moorhouse is one of thousands of NHS staff who have either left the profession or changed roles this year.

Although the Nursing and Midwifery (NMC) register shows the number of nurses, midwives and nursing associates has grown by 1.8% to just under 745,000, it also shows the number of people leaving the profession is at its highest rate since 2017 with 13,945 quitting between April and September this year.

The NMC and NHS England do not collate data on staff leaving departments so it is not easy to establish how many have left intensive care units or A&E during the pandemic.

An A&E nurse for four years, Emily has now moved to community nursing.
"I just knew that my mental health mattered more," she said.

"Sometimes you feel like you have to push on for the sake of your colleagues. It's not even like people are making you feel like that, it's just inside of you because you work as a team and you don't want to feel like you're letting your team down because you know it's going to make the situation worse if you're not there.

cont  https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-59104738

They need more than just applause now...............

[SteveH]

Wales had the longest waiting times and caused the highest level of 'any harm' of all ambulance services in England, Scotland and Wales, a report has found.

The report, compiled by the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives (AACE) focused on a structured clinical review, undertaken to assess the potential harm that patients experience as a result of extended delays in their handover from an ambulance crew to hospital staff.

All ambulance services in the three countries participated in the review, which took place on January 4 2021 and results were discussed during a Welsh Ambulance Service Trust board meeting this week.

The AACE report found that in England, Scotland and Wales, over 8 out of 10 patients whose handover was delayed beyond 60 minutes were assessed as likely to have experienced some level of harm, with just under 1 in 10 being classified as potentially experiencing severe harm.

In Wales, the harm identified was higher than the overall combined findings above, with 9 in 10 people assessed as experiencing harm with a quarter of these being either moderate or severe.

With waiting times in Wales, especially North Wales very high. It was no surprise to see that Wales had the longer waiting times out of the three countries, both at handover and in the emergency departments.

cont https://www.northwalespioneer.co.uk/news/19747077.ambulance-audit-sorry-reading-welsh-service/

[Hugo]

Just as an add on to what Steve has posted, these delays are happening throughout the UK.     My walking buddy Tellytubby who is in hospital in Bodelwyddan at this moment was told by a member of the nursing staff that there were 12 ambulances waiting outside now.

[norman08]

That review was done in January, nowEngland is just as bad if not worse, I notice it's the pioneer Quoting this, the rag that gets its stories off Facebook, it's a shame the local Tories can't have a look inside the hospitals first hand, having worked in the local hospital I seen it all.

[SteveH]

The daily scramble for GP appointments, often relying on perseverance and blind luck, is to come to an end in Wales, according to the Welsh Government.

Constant re-dialing and automatic call-backs by frustrated patients should become a thing of the past under a new GP contract agreed this week.

Cardiff has put up an extra to £12m to increase GP pay and to change the way doctor’s appointments are booked.

According to the Welsh Government, the revised contracts will “make it clear the practice of releasing appointments daily at 8am is no longer acceptable”.

“I want to see an end to the 8am bottleneck where patients have to telephone their practice numerous times, day after day, to get an appointment,” said health minister Eluned Morgan.

Instead, people will be triaged – assessed by medical staff – and given an appointment "if needed".

This screening process will see some people signposted to other services or healthcare professionals, rather than their GP.

cont  https://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/unacceptable-morning-scramble-gp-appointments-22324013#comments-wrapper

one of the 18 comments........."So we will then be in the position of the lines being clogged whilst triage takes place"

[SteveH]

We are biased, living close to this hospital, and have used it quite a few times, we would like to see it improve and continue its good work..........

AN MS is calling for the health board to “maintain and restore” ambulatory care services at Llandudno General Hospital after they were suspended during the pandemic.

Janet Finch-Saunders has submitted a request for a meeting of the Llandudno Hospital Action Group (LHAG) to discuss the need for the services since staff were relocated to Llandudno’s Rainbow Hospital at Venue Cymru, which was decommissioned in May.

Mrs Finch-Saunders will also formally raise her concerns about the hospital in her submission to the Senedd’s Health and Social Care Committee consultation on hospital discharge and patient flows.

Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board last month said there was “low” demand for the unit before the pandemic and that it is reviewing how it will resume services “as part of a joined-up model across North Wales”.

Mrs Finch-Saunders said the hospital could provide “greater assistance and around the clock care” to tackle North Wales’ backlog in appointments.

Recent figures showed more than 320,000 appointments and 11,000 operations were cancelled between April last year and this September as the health board focused its resources on treating and vaccinating people for Covid-19.

“I have long believed that Llandudno Hospital is being underutilised,” she said. “Many constituents would automatically, and rather sadly, feel they had little choice but to drive to Glan Clwyd or Gwynedd because the emergency department has been downgraded in Llandudno.

“With entrenched concerns about prolonged waiting times for patients to receive diagnosis and appropriate treatment, the ambulatory care unit must reopen at the earliest possible opportunity.

With a central location along the North Wales coast, maintaining and restoring the services can help to relieve the strain on other sites in the region.”   ref pioneer

[norman08]

Well we'll wonder where she has been all these years, this goes back before devolution, shame she's gone missing all these years, from Our hospital having every service you could have to being like a cottage hospital.

[SteveH]

First story..........AN MS met with the chief executive of Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board (BCUHB) to discuss the "potential" of Llandudno General Hospital.

Janet Finch-Saunders, MS for Aberconwy, undertook a site meeting with Jo Whitehead after discovering that no patients had been seen at the Ambulatory Care Unit (ACU) since 2021.

She also feels that delayed hospital discharged could be partially alleviated at the three district general hospitals in North Wales if patients were transferred to community hospitals such as Llandudno.

BCUHB recently revealed that Llandudno Hospital has adopted a winter initiative to help ease bed pressures at other sites.

Mrs Finch-Saunders said: "Having set about a chain of interventions to acknowledge and combat the local belief that the excellent healthcare facilities at Llandudno Hospital are being firmly underutilised, I was pleased to meet with Jo Whitehead at this site to make clear my belief that this centrally situated establishment can help to relieve the strain on other sites in the region.

“My hope is that the recent creation of a transition ward here in Llandudno will now form part of a broader reversal trend against the centralising services in the three district general hospitals.

“Importantly, Llandudno Hospital continues to host the only bone centre in North Wales and there are no plans to move or reduce this service. I now wish to see the health board build on this commitment by reviewing the list of responsibilities for the Minor Injury Unit to determine whether it can offer greater assistance and around the clock care.

“With Llandudno MIU already performing excellently, the hospital has great potential.

cont  https://www.northwalespioneer.co.uk/news/19796562.ms-meets-betsi-chief-raising-concerns-llandudno-general-hospital-underutilised/


Second story....
STAFF are hoping a winter initiative at Llandudno Hospital will help ease bed pressures at other sites around North Wales.

The 'Bridging Service' will see patients who are medically fit to be discharged and have a suitable care package in place "stepped down" to the specially configured Aberconwy ward in Llandudno.

The six-month project will be aimed mainly at easing pressures on beds in main acute sites by offering what has been described as a “transitional” space between treatment and being discharged.

cont  https://www.northwalespioneer.co.uk/news/19770944.new-initiative-hospital-will-see-patients-discharged-care-package-place/

[norman08]

She's a belter, Where has she been all these years that our Once general hospital has been down graded, it is just like a care home now, we had every service up there, the reason the unit isn't open is because the staff have been redeployed else where no doubt.

[SteveH]

Sounds good, but it is people who need the help, pointless having new equipment, without staff, and why does the military support cost eight million ?

Welsh Ambulance Service gets millions more funding to get through winter as pressures build
Health Minister Eluned Morgan said the emergency service is under 'great strain'

The plans include a £15m investment in a new fleet of 111 emergency vehicles "to improve fleet reliability and availability."

The new fleet will include 39 replacement emergency ambulances, 12 new emergency ambulances and 23 rapid response vehicles.

£11m will be spent to extend the military support for ambulances until the end of March and will see the number of staff increase from 100 to 250 early next year.

More than £8m has also been made available to support emergency ambulance services, and non-emergency patient transport services.

A £5m investment directly into the Welsh Ambulance Service NHS Trust will see 36 additional frontline ambulance clinicians, doubling the number of existing clinical support desk capacity to provide advice over the phone to 999 patients.

cont  https://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/welsh-ambulance-service-gets-millions-22543295

[Ian]

why does the military support cost eight million ?

I was wondering that, too. We already pay for the military out of our taxes, as we do with the NHS. Seems a bit rich for them to be shuffling funds around, given this is a pandemic.

[SteveH]

why does the military support cost eight million ?

I was wondering that, too. We already pay for the military out of our taxes, as we do with the NHS. Seems a bit rich for them to be shuffling funds around, given this is a pandemic.

Sorry I misquoted the military support cost, should read eleven million, as in the article. 

[Ian]

Makes it even worse :-)

[SteveH]

IMPORTANT MESSAGE FROM THE HEALTH BOARD BELOW
Our Emergency Departments across all three Hospitals are extremely busy at present. These departments have to prioritise the most seriously injured patients who need urgent care.
Minor injuries and illnesses can be treated:
• at your local Pharmacy
• at a Minor Injury Unit
• by contacting the NHS Direct Wales helpline, open 24/7, dial 111
By choosing the most appropriate health care service for you needs, you will not only be helping your local NHS services during this pandemic, but you might also be seen quicker.               ref  Craig Y Don Surgery

The above message hit social media yesterday on many sites................

Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board (BCUHB) has warned that the emergency departments at three major North Wales hospitals are "extremely busy" at present.

Amid rising pressure on emergency departments in Ysbyty Gwynedd, Ysbyty Glan Clwyd, and Wrexham Maelor, the health board has urged the public to try and use community services rather than visiting A&E.

In a post on Facebook, BCUHB said: "Our emergency departments across all three hospitals are extremely busy at present.

"These departments have to prioritise the most seriously injured patients who need urgent care.

"By choosing the most appropriate health care service for you needs, you will not only be helping your local NHS services during this pandemic, but you might also be seen quicker."

With the pressures of the pandemic rising in the region once more, the health board is calling for the public to support local NHS services.

Patients are advised to utilise community services for minor injuries and illnesses, and choose the "most appropriate" healthcare service for their needs.

Those with minor injuries and illnesses can visit a local pharmacy, Minor Injury Unit, or contact NHS 111 symptom checker.

More information about local services can be found on the BCUHB website.           ref DP