Labour claim Princess Alexandra “running out of beds”
Politics / Tue 28th Jan 2014 at 08:45am
Critical care beds are reserved for some of the most seriously ill patients, patients who are suffering from organ failure or who have been involved in a serious accident. If none are available then desperately sick patients could be forced to travel miles to another hospital, while others who needed life and limb-saving procedures would have to endure risky delays.
This revelation comes as the NHS is facing up to a winter crisis thanks to David Cameron. The latest figures from the service reveal that the NHS has just had its worst week so far for A&E performance.
Suzy Stride, Labour’s General Election candidate for Harlow said:
“It is extremely worrying that on so many days there were no spare beds available for critically ill patients in Harlow. This is a clear sign of a system in distress and a crisis in emergency care that is getting more serious by the day.
“Ministers must provide an urgent reassurance to the people served by Princess Alexandra Hospital that there are sufficient critical care beds in place to cope with pressure throughout the rest of this winter. We also need to know whether patient safety has been compromised in any way and whether any critically ill patients faced unacceptably long waits to receive care.
“The fault here clearly lies with this Tory government. Anyone looking at these figures will conclude that the NHS is simply not safe in this government’s hands.”
simoncarter
2014-01-28 14:26:35
Stop doing down our hospital Suzy! Is anyone else fed up of the nasty politics of Suzy Stride who is talking down our hospital (the hospital of a town she doesn’t even live in!) Not only is she critical of our local hospital but she shows a woeful misunderstanding of how the health service works; something you would have thought a parliamentary candidate needs. Let’s look at the facts – It is West Essex Clinical Commissioning Group which makes the health spending choices in Harlow, and who decide what services and levels of service to buy from Princess Alexandra Hospital on the public’s behalf (not the government). Looking at the NHS England allocations report for 2013/14 (http://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/ccg-allocations-13-141.pdf) we can see that shows the Government’s cash allocation for West Essex grew this year by a £7m to a total budget of over £310m – enough money to invest in Critical Care beds if they are what’s needed. The CCG is led by a team of mostly local GP’s so you would think they would know what they are doing but if Suzy has any questions about the way the CCG commissions Critical Care services for Harlow then why doesn’t she just talk to the CCG board member for Patient and Public Engagement (PPE) former Labour Councillor Jackie Sully! ( http://www.westessexccg.nhs.uk/about-us/meet-the-leadership-team.htm) Go on Suzy, have Sunday lunch with your former councillor and get her to explain it to you…..
HarlowHospital
2014-01-28 15:23:50
The hospital has been running at 95% capacity but the opening of the new 20 bed ward adjoining A and E last week has made a big difference. The ward was paid for with £2.8 million national "winter pressures" money allocated to the hospital. The new ward is a Short Stay Assessment Unit where patients stay for between 24 to 48 hours whilst tests and monitoring are carried out before a decision is taken on whether to continue treatment by admitting to the hospital or through allowing the patient home with a referral to a GP or outpatients.
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