MP Robert Halfon responds to waiting times at Princess Alexandra A and E
Health / Wed 8th Jun 2022 at 03:38pm
HARLOW MP Robert Halfon has responded to news that outpatients at Accident and Emergency have been told they may have thirteen hour waits.
Mr Halfon said:
“I have nothing but huge admiration for every member of staff who works at Princess Alexandra Hospital, including: the consultants, doctors, nurses, midwives, porters, domestic workers and support staff who work tirelessly to provide the best possible service for residents in difficult circumstances.
It is worth noting that PAH experiences the highest A&E admissions anywhere in England, serving not only Harlow residents but across Essex and parts of Hertfordshire. This is why I’ve worked hard to pump more money into the hospital, including £11.5 million since 2018 alone. I’m also pleased to see over 190 more nurses and 53 more doctors since 2019.
Despite this further investment, the level of admissions puts an immense strain on the services it provides and is only made worse by the fact that the hospital buildings are not fit for purpose.
That’s why I campaigned for so many years to secure a new hospital for Harlow and I am pleased that this was confirmed as a “new integrated, high-tech healthcare campus” were outlined in the Government’s recent Levelling Up White Paper, consequently the only hospital to be featured in the white paper, confirming the new hospital for Harlow. I am meeting with the Health Secretary Sajid Javid this evening to discuss the new hospital and the pressures on our A & E.
I have also discussed the immediate issues of the delays in A&E with the hospital Chief Executive.
We also face issues with residents accessing their GP. That’s why I am meeting regularly with the West Essex Clinical Commissioning Group and met with DR Jane Halpin of NHS East this morning.
“They are in charge of Harlow’s GP surgeries and visiting surgeries across the town – to try and improve GP services for patients”.
Sue
2022-06-08 16:06:30
GP’s need to be seeing people, filling their waiting rooms and not directing non emergencies to A&E And people need to learn to not use A&E as first port of call
Nat
2022-06-08 16:34:41
The plant pots look lovely Robert 🤦♀️ But instead of trying to collapse the nhs from the inside out so u can privatise it maybe you could have a word with Javid and get him to appoint a few more staff who have the right fundamentals to work in such an environment, instead you talk of building another hospital when you haven’t got staff to cater for the areas PAH caters for now, Drs need to stop using covid as an excuse for sitting on their arses! On a recent visit with a family member it became clear it wasn’t busy,the staff once through to next department just stood staring at computer screens and sharing sweets, and having a laugh with each other, furthermore it’s not acceptable for elderly patients to be left sitting up right in chairs all night whilst waiting for transport to take them home blocking up corridors and just being left to fend for themselves,basic care and compassion is missing,you could argue low morale but all the staff seemed to be buoyant,I could honestly say only 2 staff members upon triage were the only ones who gave a damn
Adam
2022-06-08 16:51:08
All of this stems from lockdown. The NHS has always been a system which was chaotic and unorganized but it kind of worked if poorly. Locking down, focusing on Covid only healthcare in the main has broken that system. Now we have a broken NHS, a backlog of serious illnesses and cancers the NHS neglected for the last 2 years plus coupled with GPs not wanting to see any one. If the conservatives were bold they would force the GPs back to work, make antibiotics and other low end medications available over the counter without prescription. Remove med school caps from the BMA which cause a artificial shortage. They would also publicly audit the NHS to find out where the money goes. Anyone not seen with 4 hours should also be refunded their NI contributions frankly, if you are left down by the NHS and go private that bill should be paid by the government. Along with being honest about the decline in beds in the NHS despite record spending (where is the money going ? as it is not getting to the front line) like many things if you supported lockdown or did not question the government, then you helped cause this and it is going to get much much worse as we get to winter. It would be nice to see the media questioning too.
Edward
2022-06-08 17:39:48
Antibiotics aren't "low end" whatever that means. Certainly we can't squander the protection they provide, they are already over used and this presents an extremely high risk. As for the nhs: we need more proactive early detection and preventative measures, more local clinics, more facilities to encourage healthy lifestyles and activities in schools. It's interesting that when Cuba was totally blockaded by the USA and high tec health care became highly restricted they evolved a very good system of clinics and primary measures that amazed many because of it's success. We might learn some lessons here before the nhs is privatised by stealth, a process reportedly supported both by M Thatcher and T Blair and American investors. Add to this the uk dental service is broken. We have experienced very poor practices from dentists from recommending a family member being told during a checkup to book an appointment with the hygienist having had one with said hygienist the week before (happened on more than one occasion), being told to get extemely expensive private treatment but finding on a visit to the London Dental hospital this treatment was definitely not needed or necessary, incorrect billing, to PAH and other local dental services being unable to respond to a dental emergency that happened due to a serious accident. Re PAH. The current site is big enough to enable new buildings to start tomorrow especially if parking were moved to one of the nearby large car parks. The high tec building promised is at J7a effectively out of town, smaller and more difficult to access for 90 % of Harlow residents, the land has yet to be secured and it's at least 8 years away. It makes little sense unless you're a property developer anxious to build high rise 20 story flats and future slums in the middle of town on the PAH site.
Stephen Patrick
2022-06-08 17:53:06
If we had better service at our GPs it would stop a lot of people going to A&E for unnecessary reasons. Doctors surgery's are ridiculous at mo
Rob
2022-06-08 18:23:01
Half on is too busy backing boris and dealing with his education committee to properly address the issues which affect the residents of Harlow. The fact is the NHS both in Harlow and across the country has been not adequately invested in for the demands it faces. The fault does not lie with Doctors, Nurses and other healthcare professionals on the front line. It lies with the politicians like Half on and Boris who put their interests before those of the nation. I look forward to both being removed at the next election. #Borisout #Halfonout
Leon beesley
2022-06-08 19:32:33
It's funny yourharlow covered my dying father's 13 hour wait in and e back in 2019, https://www.yourharlow.com/2019/11/06/harlow-residents-experience-of-princess-alexandra-hospital/ Nothing has improved, people are dying in pah due to shortages of staff and a lack of care.
Ben
2022-06-08 19:51:44
Let’s be very clear about this. This is not a ‘new’ hospital. This is a replacement for the under-invested, under staffed and under funded existing hospital. If Robert and his cronies cared about the people of Essex they would be building an additional hospital to make up for the years of closures and service reductions. But they won’t they will replace the bare minimum and tell you it’s the best thing since sliced bread. Then in the next breath it’s ‘all that we can afford’. In the mean time the health secretary will continue his back room talks to privatise more of the services which you and I rely on, to keep us healthy. And piecemeal the health care won by voters in the 1940-50s will be gone. Free health care in the UK will be gone by the 2050s, replaced by profits for Robert’s backers and funders in ‘industry’. Robert won’t respond to any criticism here, in private correspondence or publicly because he knows it’s true and can’t argue any benefit for privatisation of the healthcare system. But he will certainly vote for it when the time comes.
Helen
2022-06-08 19:58:16
Cut GP wages by 50% for those still refusing face to face patient appointments and redirect the saving to the hospitals who are doing their workloads.
David Forman
2022-06-08 22:17:13
It is interesting to note that the last Labour government started reducing the number of A&E units to concentrate consultant cover. An article from 2007 in the Evening Standard and the Daily Mail made clear that the clinical establishment opposed these plans and that even the Government's own commissioned report raised doubts: "There is evidence that larger emergency departments have longer waiting times. Big is not necessarily better.". https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-483467/A-E-closure-plan-cost-lives-Labour-told.html
Johnny the unwell
2022-06-08 22:17:19
Oh dear oh dear oh dear Just hope I don't get anything worse than a cold if the NHS goes tits up...the future looks bleak...roll on the next plague!🤢
Da Hammer
2022-06-09 15:20:16
Crazy but i haven`t been able to get an appointment with a doctor since before the pandemic. I`m constantly directed to see a nurse as have many others I've talked to. Just what are the surgery doctors doing if they are not seeing their patients?
Nat Clev
2022-06-11 07:15:47
We don't just need a new hospital we need it to be another hospital, One hospital concentrating on routine operations and admissions and one for A&E / walk in out of hour emergency admissions and operations.
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