Since Edwin Poots has taken up the post as Health Minister there have been 4 separate reviews into the provision of health services within the Northern Health & Social Care Trust:
· Tribal 2010 · Rutter & Hinds 2012 · Transforming Your Care 2012/13 · The Turnaround Team 2013 None of these reviews have had an impact on service delivery as performance problems are still very real despite fewer people attending Antrim A&E. While Antrim A&E may see surges on particular days the amount of patients attending the A&E are falling. The Turnaround Team lead by Sue Page of Cumbria NHS Trust was present in Antrim Hospital while the hospital was escalated, they failed to change anything in the hospital to make the performance better, serious concerns must be raised about any recommendations brought forward by this review. Any changes that could of benefited the hospital surely would of been implemented while the team was in the hospital instead of waiting months to produce a report. Save The Mid have an ongoing patient survey into Antirm Hospital and the blocking of fire exits, this survey can be found via the Save The Mid website http://savethemid.weebly.com/antrim-area-hospital---survey.html . It has already received 38 responses although the time period I am letting it run has not expired. One comment already form the survey that I can give you to reference is below, outside of the medical care that patients need in hospital to feel degraded like this for being a patient is unacceptable :
5. Can you comment generally about your stay? E.g Where beds were placed, the amount of patients in the ward, staff etc.. "I was put in the bed covering the fire exit. There were 4 other patient around me in normal beds, I did not have a curtain for any privacy, I felt ashamed of myself as everyone else could see me in my condition. The nurses were so helpful especially when I had to go to the toilet, if not for them I would have wet myself and had to lay in public view for everyone to see." More trolleys no solution to A&E crisis
A news article from Irish Nursing and Midwives organisation is highly critical of placing extra trollys in wards when A&E's are full. Also see - Escalation Of Antrim A&E led to Fire Escapes Being Blocked With Trolleys This practice was widely used in Antrim area Hospital post the Rutter & Hinds review in 2012, with Mary Hinds from that review now taking charge of the health trust can the public be fully satisfied that improvements will be made within the trust. The decision by management at the Mid-Western Regional Hospital in Limerick to place multiple trolleys on medical wards in recent weeks, as a response to accident and emergency department overcrowding, was described by Dave Hughes, Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation deputy general secretary, as "abandonment by HSE management at local and national level, of patients and staff both in emergency departments and medical wards". Due to recent developments within the NHSCT, Save The Mid have lobbied MLA's to ask the health Minister several questions to help highlight what is going on inside the Trust
Health Minister announces new appointments to Northern Trust for next stage of turnaround
2 May 2013 Health Minister Edwin Poots today announced the appointment of two senior executives to the Northern Health and Social Care Trust to lead on the next stages of turnaround in order to improve performance in critical areas of service delivery. Between 4th Jan -15th Mar 639 patients who have attended Antrim A&E have had to wait over 12 hours before they were admitted or discharged.
This is the equivalent of a minimum of 319 days spent waiting in A&E by these patinets. Falling A&E numbers, yet 4 hour target is yet far from being achieved in Northern Ireland’s Type 1 accident and emergencies. Although there has been a marked decrease in the amount of patients waiting over 12 hours in A&E for treatment in February 2013, 658 patients waited over 12 hours. 295 of these were at the Ulster Hospital with Antrim having 187. Comparing figures in A&E are best done by comparing year on year, rather than month on month due to a recognized seasonal variance in attendance.
Key Difference Feb12/13
If you have been a patient, visitor or if you are a member of staff at Antrim Hospital can you please fill out this short survey. http://savethemid.weebly.com/antrim-area-hospital---survey.html
Staff, visitors and patients have not been treated with due respect or due care by management within the Northern Health & Social Care Trust, this is your opportunity to have you opinions heard. Results of this survey will be shared with the Heath Minister and the Health Committee. Both of whom are aware of several risks that have occurred in Antrim Hospital. No personal information is gathered and you will not have to give us your name, we just need your experience. We would take this opportunity to thank the nurses and other front-line staff who at this time are working under considerable pressures, pressures that are purely the fault of bad managerial decisions within the Trust. When we are ill and require admission to hospital the very least the management of the Northern Trust can do is ensure that we have beds that are medically safe to be treated in. Also management should ensure that patients are afforded privacy and human dignity and not have patients wheeled into wards to lay on show beds for the general hospital population to see. It is time to send a message to the Northern Trust management that is loud and clear, we are patients but be are also human beings. Independently Living Elderly Lady Discharged to nursing home after CHAOS at Antrim Hospital2/28/2013 This patient experience was read out and discussed at the 68th Northern Health & Social Care Trust Board Room meeting, 28/02/2013.
This patients account shows whats happens when systems fails, from December 2012 the Antrim Hospital was so stretched for beds that patients were diverted from it. Antrim Hospital is classed as one of the major 5 in Northern Ireland and for this to be able to take place is unacceptable. An independently living elderly patient attended Antrim A&E on the 18th December 2012 at 10am. After waiting 5 hours for treatment she was admitted into the main hospital site, the lady and her family were told that she could expect to be home in 3 days time. After responding well to her treatment she was not discharged from the hospital as directed. This then led to an ordeal that resulted in the once independently living lady being discharged to a nursing home. During her stay she was moved 5 times within the hospital despite the fact that after her A&E visit she was admitted to the appropriate ward to treat her illness. After being advised that she could be discharged for Christmas no social worker could be gained to support her discharge which left the lady spending Christmas in the hospital. On the 27th December the lady developed more illnesses, further to this the lady was discharged on the 31st December 2012 but was too frail to return to her home and the discharge was to a nursing home. |
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