Vocal Voices

I hope everyone is keeping we'll
My hospital is in crisis as per normal
Scarborough hospital is nearest a e emergency hospital 22mile away
Our local hospital 5minute up the road doesent do a e
God help us all

Yes, Saudra, I saw it on the news, and the BBC is, of course, making the most of it and painting the NHS in a bad light, as it always does. However, there are figures out there showing that some 30% of those turning up at A&E are not emergency patients and should be going to their GP, minor injuries unit or even a chemists.

It is not that the facilities are not there, it is us who are abusing them. Unless and until someone in A&E is authorised to tell people that based on their medical needs they are in the wrong place and need to go somewhere else this situation will continue.

What upsets me frank is the fact
Even if I was ill we can't even get an ambulance from here
But I do realise that people are going to a e when it's. Not necessarily essential
And ringing 111 is next to useless rant over

You just happen to be in one of those parts of the country Saundra.

A mate of mine lives in Driffield and when his wife was pregnant it was pot luck whether they would end up in York or Hull.

They closed the maternity at Bridlington along with the heart and stroke units
If the heart unit had been 5 minutes away and not 22mile Bill
Might have lived but we couldn't prove it heads should roll

Part of the problem is the new PFI-built hospitals.

We have had two built, at Wakefield and Pontefract. The one at Wakey is called Pinderfields.

The new Pinderfields being built to replace the old.

The new Pinderfields has fewer beds and (allegedly) fewer facilities than the old. The PFI payments to a private company cost £40 million last year and we are a couple of years into a thirty five year contract.

Plus and never spoken of is the politicisation of the NHS. They have more managers than soft Mick, managers who know nothing of medicine. 90% of them could be done away with and it would be no loss.

My understanding from inside the NHS finance structure is that this government initiated two key activities

1. removing unneeded and unwanted management layers
2. changing focus from treatment to prevention

Notably the NHS has chained itself to the Labour fence and they are having to cut every single one loose one at a time.

It's no surprise that A&E are overwhelmed. I bet half of the 30% haven't even checked to see if they have a walk in centre. A&E should be doing triage at the desk, rather than taking a name and forcing everyone to wait hours just for triage. Probably a huge number could be moved off to walk in centres reducing the waiting times significantly.

That's a management function. As much as anything the management is failing the NHS and costing them a fortune to do it.

Gloucester Royal and Cheltenham General have both declared emergency status and were on the news

I don't understand how they're suddenly in a state of emergency, there's no flu epidemic or anything

That's what I said Di