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Action is needed to make hospitals fit for purpose

4/20/2012

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Like most people, I have been appalled by the serious problems experienced by patients recently in our emergency departments. These difficulties have only served to reinforce my commitment to reform how we deliver health and social care.Last summer, when I announced the review of health and social care, I stated: "It is clear that the full range of health and social care services is unsustainable in its current form if we are to deliver the best outcomes for everyone."

John Compton and the review team delivered their report, entitled Transforming Your Care, and just before Christmas I announced my intention to implement it.

Far from undermining my belief in this reform, the recent problems in the Royal Victoria, Antrim Area and Ulster Hospitals have only further convinced me there is only one path we can follow.

The recent challenges faced by our hospitals are not new and I am not the first health minister to be presented with them. I will not shy away from taking action.

I have left senior officials in my department, the Health and Social Care Board (HSCB) and the chairs and chief executives of trusts in no doubt as to what I expect.

They will deliver improved patient-flows in our hospitals through a range of measures such as maximising senior doctor decision-making, providing more day case surgery and more efficient patient discharging and triaging.

However, this is only a short-term component of a broader solution. We run the risk of this problem re-emerging if too many people are admitted to hospital when they do not need to be there.

It is also useful to set emergency department pressures in the appropriate context. In total, 700,000 patients attend these departments every year and the vast majority receive very high-quality care.

While we will seek to ensure the best possible hospital environment and duration of wait, these objectives will never outweigh providing the highest-quality interventions.

There have been massive improvements in how we treat some of the main killers such as stroke, heart attack and major trauma in recent years and saving lives will always be my priority.

I have never been under any illusion that the scale of the task we face, but it is achievable.

We need to end avoidable hospital stays, improve outcomes for everyone that needs our services, maximise our use of new technology and bring care closer to the doorstep by fully involving individuals and their communities.

In Transforming Your Care, we have the blueprint to deliver reform. I recognise that the solution is not simple, straightforward, or immediate.

While I cannot say the process ahead will not be challenging, I can assure you that it will be planned and managed. Transformation on this scale requires significant contributions from all areas of the health and social sector. We need strong leadership and that is why we have put in place robust governance arrangements to ensure effective delivery of reform.

We have leaders in place to guide us through the reform process and I will hold them to account in the same way you hold me to account.

I am constantly updated on the progress of this programme of work and those who obstruct change will have questions to answer - to me and to the communities they serve.

Local population plans will be completed by June. The overall journey will take years, but significant change must occur within months.

I want everyone to be confident that the health and social care system will deliver for them - if and when they need it.

The scenes I have witnessed, the reports I have read and the stories I have heard about the recent experiences of patients in our hospitals have simply increased my determination to remain focused on reform and driving forward fundamental and far-reaching change.


Read more: http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/opinion/news-analysis/action-is-needed-to-make-hospitals-fit-for-purpose-16146978.html#ixzz1scQeP3SJ
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Acute Cuts In Health Services since 2007 , Northern Ireland

4/5/2012

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Reconfigurations and Changes to Services

The following information should be taken into consideration when viewing historic information on attendances and waiting times at specific emergency care departments:

Brooklands – In November 2007, the Southern HSC Trust closed the minor injuries unit at the Brooklands hospital.

Tyrone County - From 2nd March 2009, Tyrone County emergency care department was reconfigured from a consultant-led treatment service (Type 2 - emergency care department) to a minor injury unit with designated accommodation for the reception of patients with minor injuries and/or illnesses (Type 3 - emergency care department).

Mid-Ulster and Whiteabbey - From 24th May 2010, Mid-Ulster and Whiteabbey emergency care departments were reconfigured from consultant-led treatment services (Type 2 - emergency care departments) to minor injury units with designated accommodation for the reception of patients with minor injuries and/or illnesses (Type 3 - emergency care departments).

Downe - On 4th April 2011, the South Eastern HSC Trust introduced new arrangements for the provision of emergency care services at the Downe Hospital resulting in the reduction of consultant-led emergency care services, from a 24 hours based service to 8am to 10pm daily.

Lagan Valley - On 1st August 2011, the South Eastern HSC Trust introduced new temporary arrangements for the provision of emergency care services at the Lagan Valley hospital resulting in the closure of the emergency care department from 8pm to 9am daily. This is a temporary change due to a shortage of medical staff but the change is expected to be in place for a number of months.

Belfast City - On 1st November 2011, the Belfast HSC Trust closed the emergency care department at the Belfast City hospital. This is a temporary change due to a shortage of senior staff but the change is expected to be in place for the foreseeable future.
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Non-Responsive Health Minister

4/3/2012

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Non-Responsive Health Minister

In a FOI released to Save The Mid, it is proven that clinical decisions are taken based on economic decisions and not patient safety as wildly touted by Health Chiefs, Colm & Sean Donaghy, John Compton and the Health Minister Edwin Poots.

Deloitte were commissioned in 2010 to review the need for extra opening hours at the Mid Ulster & Whiteabbey Minor Injury Units, it was deemed then based on the flawed report that no further opening hours were required. See Save The Mid submission to the Compton Health Review - link. What slaps more in the face of patients across Northern Ireland and Mid Ulster is that Health Minister Edwin Poots now wants Minor Injuries in Belfast.

It was found through the FOI that Deloitte were given the review to consult upon because they were economically the best choice, with absolutely no reference to their ability to make clinical decisions.

The Minor Injuries is not a lifesaving service, it has proven ineffective in combating waiting time within the Northern Health & Social Care Trust, it is a smoke screen by the Health Minister to quell a fatal mistake in the configuration of health services in Northern Ireland. Now Mr Poots would like the public to blame drinkers, obese people, and other people who go to A&E only to find their injury is not as severe to be the problem, he wishes for the public to stigmatise these people to create a smoke screen for his department to cut away services and blame everyone but the actual decision makers.

The Minor Injury review is a small example of how the Health Minster and Health Chiefs say in their PR trained voice that decisions are made for patient safety when in reality they are made according the cheapest price.


Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
Albert Einstein


Closure of Acute Services in Dungannon & Omagh, replaced with Minor Injuries, no development in network hospitals,

Closure of Acute Services in Mid Ulster & Whiteabbey, replaced with Minor Injuries, no development in network hospitals,

Both of the above have had a detrimental effect on the ability of the remaining acute hospitals to meet the demand that has been placed upon them, why now does Health Minister Mr Poots believe that the closure of Belfast City acute services & limited opening hours of Lagan Valley acute services and replacing it replaced with a Minor Injury Unit will work now

Questions are now being raised as to how a man could die on a trolley after waiting 22 hours to be admitted to a ward, the question that should be answered is Why Was He Laying There In The First Place? the corners report will state how he died but that is not enough to ensure that this does not happen in the future.



Why is the Health Minister Non-responsive in answering this question?

Why for January & February 2012 according to the DHPPS A&E waiting times were 2,904 people lying in A&E over 12 hours waiting for admitted or discharged from Accident and Emergency department across the country?

Why for the year 2011 according to the DHPPS A&E waiting times did 9,627 patients wait in trolleys and chairs over 12 hours to be admitted or discharged from Accident and Emergency department across the country?

The above is the first instance of insanity by the current Health Minister in that he is repeating mistakes done in the past, the second instance of insanity comes in allowing those who created and overseen the problems such as, John Compton CEO HSCB and Colm Donaghy CEO  BHSCT to try and fix it.

It is time for leadership and direct decisions rather than the same insanity that has taken acute care to the brink in Northern Ireland.


"The problems that exist in the world today cannot be solved by the level of thinking that created them."
Albert Einstein


 

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Private Health Care Provider’s Contracted in by Northern Health

4/3/2012

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SAVE THE MID
Private Health Care Provider’s Contracted in by Northern Health

 

The Northern Health & Social Care Trust has award separate contracts to private health providers to combat waiting lists of Out-patients within the Trust.

At the 31st January there were 1,752 NHSCT patients were waiting over the Ministerial13 week target for treatment in In-patients/day-case; while a further 9,484 patients were waiting over the Ministerial targeted 9 week waiting time for their first out-patient appointment.

  • ·         North and West Independent Hospital (NWIH) a private hospital based in Ballykelly Co. Derry, have been award a 6 month contract to provide services for Pain Management
  • ·         3 Five Two Healthcare, a private healthcare provider based in Belfast has been awarded a 6 month contract to provide; Dermatology, ENT, Gastroenterology, General Surgery, Gynaecology, Neurology, Pain and Rheumatology.
  • ·         Medinet Wales Ltd whos head office is in Wales was award a 5 month contract
Currently the Trust have not informed the Public on how much these providers will be paid, but these contracts show that outside of A&E that the Trust is facing several difficulties that will not be remedied with further health cuts/centralisation as recommend by John Compton.

Capacity is full within the Northern Trust in; A&E, inpatient wards, consultant led clinics, theatres, the Trust cannot afford any more cuts as per the review initiated by Health Minister Edwin Poots. Urget investment is required before the entire Trust area becomes clinically unsafe to live in and before the Trust review what services to remove while the Assembly is on summer recess and unfit to stop them.


ENDS------------------------

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