After the failed attempt of a judicial review by Independent Health & Care Providers (IHCP) are there doubts now over the sustainability of private providers to sustain their services. IHCP memberships includes among others:
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As at the 28/02/13 there were 1299 Cardiology and 2 Urodynamic patients waiting over 9 weeks for a diagnostic test. Causeway Echocardiography figures not available for February due to changes in recording. January ’13 position is used in the interim. (There are 39 tests, these are grouped in the headings shown above). Figures not yet validated.
* Cardiology Perfusion Studies – MPI breaches due to (i) A sharp rise in demand over several months, (ii) Limited reporting capacity due to having a single NHSCT cardiologist competent in MPI reporting. INDICATOR – No more than 2% of operations should be cancelled for non-clinical reasons on the day. All surgical patients should have appropriate pre-operative assessment.
Still Birth Increases in first 9 months of 2012 in the Mid Ulster area
Maternity services in Mid Ulster were removed in 2006 in the name of questionable safety risks, fast forward 6 years and for the first 3 quarter in 2012, 10% of all still births in Northern Ireland are to mothers resident in the Mid Ulster area. The First 3 quarters has seen 80 still births across the province, 20 of these are to mothers normally resident in the Northern Health & Social Care Trust (NHSCT). Of these 20, 8 occurred to Mid Ulster resident mothers, 5 from Magherafelt and 3 form Cookstown. In the 4 quarters of 2011 Northern Ireland 91 still births occurred, 14 of which were to mothers resident in the NHSCT area. The Mid Ulster area seen 5 still births, 2 in Cookstown and 3 in Magherafelt Statistical points: NHSCT accounted for 15% of all still births in Northern Ireland in 2011 (4 quarters) NHSCT accounted for 25% of all still births in Northern Ireland for the first 3 quarters of 2012 Mid Ulster (Cookstown & Magherafelt LGD) accounted 5.5% of all still births in Northern Ireland in 2011 (4 quarters) Mid Ulster (Cookstown & Magherafelt LGD) accounted for 10% of all still births in Northern Ireland for the first 3 quarters of 2012 Cookstown has the Highest Birth Rate (per 1,000 of the population) within the NHSCT with a rate of 11.2 for the first 3 quarters of 2012 Magherafelt has the second Highest Birth Rate (per 1,000 of the population) within the NHSCT with a rate of 10.7 for the first 3 quarters of 2012 There has to be serious and instant moves by the Health Minister and NHSCT to ensure that these figures are fully addressed and that figures do not continue to rise. Although there are several reasons why stillbirths occur there is an obvious issue here as stillbirth rates are on the increase and have remained high in the Mid Ulster area since the removal of maternity services in 2006 . The Mid Ulster areas of Magheraflet and Cookstown have among the highest birth rates in Northern Ireland yet only limited services are provided at the Mid Wife led unit at the Mid Ulster Hospital. Save The Mid have responded to the health review Transforming Your Care and have included in its recommendations the introduction of a Mid Wife led delivery service similar to the one opened in Lagan Valley Hospital in 2011. Since the removal of maternity services at Mid Ulster the capacity of maternity at both Antrim and Causeway hospitals have both declined. In a FOI gained by Save The Mid it showed that emergency calls that originate in Mid Ulster has seen mothers taken across the province with 7 of the 32 calls resulting in the mothers being taken to Altnagelvin (http://savethemid.weebly.com/uploads/7/4/7/7/7477841/foi-43_transportation_of_pregnant_women_bt45_49_80.pdf) . As shown in our response there is also a reliance on the ambulance service to take pregnant mothers to hospital, In 26 of the 32 cases, the 'chief complaint' was directly related to pregnancy, childbirth or miscarriage. In the other 6 instances the patient was pregnant but the 'chief complaint' was something else e.g. back pains, fainting. This was taken of 1 5 month period between Jan-May 2012. As these recommendations has already been received by both the Heath Minister and John Compton form Transforming Your Care, regarding the still birth rates Save The Mid will be writing to local MLA's to gain support in reestablishing maternity services at the Mid Ulster Hospital Site. Link to Lagan Valley - http://www.northernireland.gov.uk/index/media-centre/news-departments/news-dhssps/news-dhssps-march-archive-2011/news-dhssps-100311-health-minister-opens.htm Link to Save The Mid Transforming Your Care response - http://savethemid.weebly.com/tyc-response-2013.html the references for the ambulance response for pregnant mothers are in here, page 57 of the briefing document. Link to source of still births - http://www.nisra.gov.uk/demography/default.asp27.htm these are reflective of where the mother is resident the hospital stats wont be printed until later but you will find some of it here, neither - Link to DHSSPS information regarding hospitals in where still births occurred during April11-12, http://www.dhsspsni.gov.uk/index/stats_research/hospital-stats/inpatients.htm / http://www.dhsspsni.gov.uk/ni_hospital_statistics_-_inpatient_activity_2011_12.pdf Save The Mid - http://savethemid.weebly.com/ Tel: 07871503189 (after 6pm) Email: [email protected] Twitter : @SaveTheMid April 2011 - March 12:
April 2012- Jan 2013 (still Feburary and March to be added)
While the Trust have reduced the amount of C DIFF infections it is seeing a high percentage of patient deaths. The NHSCT has seen one of the worst outbreaks of C DIFF in the past ten years in the UK with 31 patients dying during the major outbreak in 2007-2008. The Inquiry Report was published on 21st March 2011. The Inquiry had one finding and made twelve recommendations. The Clostridium Difficile Report is now available and can be accessed by selecting Inquiry Report. A recent audit of wards A1 and B1 at Antrim Area Hospital shows a low level of compliance against audit targets. The Northern Health & Social Care Trust (NHSCT) is falling behind in its target to beat C-Diff within its hospitals and buildings. On 14th October 2008, the Minister for Health, Social Services and Public Safety advised the Assembly that a public inquiry would be conducted into the outbreak of Clostridium Difficile infection that occurred in Northern Health and Social Care hospitals. The Minister established the Public Inquiry on 31st March 2009. The Inquiry Report was published on 21st March 2011. The Inquiry had one finding and made twelve recommendations. The Clostridium Difficile Report is now available and can be accessed by selecting Inquiry Report. The Northern Health and Social Care Trust responded to the findings of the Public Inquiry into the C.difficile outbreak in the Trust in 2008. Chief Executive, Sean Donaghy said, “On behalf of the Northern Trust I would like to unreservedly apologise to everyone affected by the C.difficile outbreak in the Northern Trust. The Trust deeply regrets the suffering of patients who had C.difficile while in our hospitals and the associated distress for them and their families. “I would also wish to express my sincere sympathy to the families of those whose loved ones died as a result of having a C.difficile infection. “On behalf of the Trust Board, I fully accept the recommendations of this Public Inquiry. I wish to thank the Inquiry for their balanced and thoughtful report and for their acknowledgement of the commitment and efforts of staff during the outbreak and since that time.” “It is clear that for some patients, aspects of their care did not reach the standard expected by the Trust. We have learned from their experience and we have taken action to make improvements.” According to Wiki sources the NHSCT has seen one of the worst outbreaks of C-Diff in the past ten years with 31 patients dying during the major outbreak in 2007-2008. For the year 2012 the NHSCT has seen 56 recorded instance of C-Diff, 14 (25%) of which have resulted in death. For only 2 months did the Trust manage to have C- Diff inside targets laid down for them. In other information released by Northern Ireland Statistics & Research Agency a breakdown of which facilities that C-Diff deaths occurred were published, in total 662 patients died with a C Diff infection between 2005-2011, the worst offending hospitals were:
The top offending hospitals are also hospitals that have faced sever pressures on their ability to deal with the demand being placed upon them in recent years. These figures do not reflect in total where C-Diff was contracted and there may be instances where patients died in an hospital or home due to a C_Diff infection but acquired the infection in a different hospital. MRSA death figures, 2005-2011 are also released by NISRA and can be found below.
£7,393,566 The Cost of Clinical Negligence in The Northern Health & SOcial Care Trust 2007-20121/30/2013 Northern Health and Social Care Trust provides a broad range of health and social care services for people across the local council areas of Antrim, Ballymena, Ballymoney, Carrickfergus, Coleraine, Cookstown, Larne, Magherafelt, Moyle and Newtownabbey.
The Northern Trust became operational on 1 April 2007, following the Review of Public Administration. They were created from the merger of 19 former trusts. The Northern Trust was established following the merger of three former trusts - Causeway, Homefirst and United. I have to say I am disappointed but not surprised that no elected Magheraflet Councillors were present at a public health meeting , held in council offices as this is where the council already agreed in private, in November 2011 the future they wanted for the Mid Ulster Hospital, and that is to turn it into a community hub. They did not fight back then, I did not expect them to fight back now. They are following on from the original consultation last year in not representing Magherafelt residents in health matters.
The Mid Ulster Hospital currently has 22 specialist services, these services only treat a very small percentage of the population and is not good enough for the general population, we need services that are very day use not once ion a lifetime. During the point of order I asked why the population plans that state the future of Mid Ulster Hospital being turned into this already agreed community hub were not available to the public, CEO of the NHSCT Sean 0naghy stated they were not important. These plans are important, so important that when health Minsiter edwin Poots addressed the Assembly on the 3rd July 2012 he mentioned the population plans no less than 15 times. The public are being led and lied to again when it comes to the future of health, it was lies that shut the Mid Ulster partly down in 2006, again in 2010 and now in 2012, not since Developing Better Services in 2001 have Magheraflet council taken a stance to fight for the hospital which raises the question that they might also have made agreements in the past with the trust. If anything the latest road incidents alone show us that life saving services are required for Mid Ulster residents and these services should be based in the Mid Ulster Hospital. The Council must show leadership and represent Magherafelt people and also have a duty to represent every resident in Mid Ulster, Mid Ulster hospital once served Mid Ulster residents, and the proposal to turn it into a community hub to serve Magherafelt residents only must be stopped. The ambulance service cannot fill the gap left by an A&E, that has been proven, along with the inability of Antrim to cope with the shut down. After this meeting part of the recommendations that Save The MId will be making to the health minister are:
Hugh McCloy The Northern Health & Social Care Trust has been a trust under fire since its inception in 2007, when formed it went against a risk assessment carried out in 2006 by Deloitte Touché And closed down the maternity Service in the Mid Ulster hospital without expanding services at both the Antrim Area and Coleraine Causeway sites. At the same time it limited the opening hours at the Mid Ulster and Whiteabbey A&E’s again without expanding the same two hospitals. Later the Trust lied to the Public under the Comprehensive Spending Review in 2009, a letter leaked to Save The Mid addressed to Dr Peter Flanagan proved that the information given to the public was false yet this review was used to remove A&E serves all together. When challenged in court the Northern Trust reverted to a document Developing Better Services in 2001, their fight was not one based on patient safety it was based on an Equality Impact Assessment carried out in 2001 to make sure the Mid Ulster Hospital stayed non-acute. While these decisions have cost lives, the people who make these decisions have sat very comfortably in their highly paid and powered position. The management of the Northern Health & Social Care Trust coupled with management within the Health & Social Care Board have been tasked through transforming your care to bring balance to the health system. This balance is only in terms of money not in patient safety, why and how the current Health Minister Edwin Poot’s expects those who broke the health system in terms of safety and money to fix it is beyond all reasonable clinical thinking. Salary of 10 executive NHSCT Board members cost the tax payer £875,000. |
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