Stafford hospital's future

Withnail said:

Moley said:

This has been on the cards for along time now and there were rumours of it well before Summara left. It is not a viable hospital and in general the care is hit and miss, positive experiences of the place are purely based on luck and how busy, how well staffed any department providing the care is at the time.

Click to expand...

This is something that people really need to think about. Everybody would like to see a viable hospital survive in Stafford but surely not at any cost. If the choice were reduced down to being a) treated badly in a convenient location, or b) treated well in an inconvenient one, i’m guessing most people would go for option b).

Interesting (as always) Medicine Balls in the Eye, asking why Cameron has ‘decided to go to war’ with the NHS, which poses relevant questions to the viability of Stafford Hospital;

M.D. said:

Labour’s massive drive for “world-class commissioning” was a belly flop, not because frontline staff were excluded, but because the NHS doesn’t measure and compare outcomes to allow meaningful choices. If you buy a suit, you can feel the width and take it back if it falls apart. It’s harder to do that with a breast implant. So the NHS just buys the cheapest and hopes it doesn’t burst. The PIP scandal is an extreme example of what happens when you compete on cost … without paying attention to quality…
…If the NHS is going to compete, it has to compete on getting patients better, not balancing the books by fobbing breast cancer patients off with cheap silicon meant for mattresses.

Click to expand...

Now for ‘cost’ read ‘convenience’. Emotive as the whole issue is for the people of Stafford, the leaked letter posted by Unlikelysuspect essentially exposes the doubts the CCG’s have about the ability of the hospital to provide care outside of the four areas outlined. Much as we would like it to be able to ‘compete’, if it can’t then what is the point of supporting it? It would be great to have a fully functioning hospital on our doorstep, but as Moley points out, if the people who work there wouldn’t want to be treated there, then why on earth would you?

I’d just like to add on the following paragraph from M.D.’s article, it might remind you of someone;

Measuring (outcomes) is not the only solution. An open, transparent culture that ensures management act on poor outcomes rather than deny it, as in Mid Staffs, is equally vital. At present, the best smoke alarm in the NHS is patients, relatives and staff speaking up when they encounter appalling care, yet the brutal suppression of whistleblowers (Eyes passim ad nauseam) shows how much NHS culture needs to change.

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

I like it

Withnail, if I was wearing a hat, I would doff it in your general direction. Well put. Of course I can understand why people want to keep a full-service hospital in Stafford but surely, what they want is a full-service, effective hospital they can trust. If the problems can't be solved at Stafford, then there is a danger that we introduce a two-tier system, where the poor, the elderly and those unable to travel have their surgery at Stafford while those more fortunate look elsewhere. I wouldn't presume to have the first idea how to heal this hospital but I do know that whistleblowers and campaigners don't create the problems.

flossietoo said:

I do know that whistleblowers and campaigners don't create the problems.

Click to expand...

That is the whole point. Refusal to acknowledge the realities is how we got here.

I find this all very annoying know our healt care/provision is suffering as a result of the hospitals management. Fair enough Stafford was bad and things needed to be done, but not closing a&e at night or downgrading the hospital, that's the easy way out for those running it and what do they care it's not them, their family & friends who will receive worse healthcare. Disgusting.

tekkers said:

I find this all very annoying know our healt care/provision is suffering as a result of the hospitals management. Fair enough Stafford was bad and things needed to be done, but not closing a&e at night or downgrading the hospital, that's the easy way out for those running it and what do they care it's not them, their family & friends who will receive worse healthcare. Disgusting.

Click to expand...

Trust me, closure at night was the best option, makes me laugh that Lynn Tout-hill (Chief Exec) states that the board made an executive decision to close it at night time. The reality of the situation is that the staff whistleblowed to the Care Quality Commission (CQC) only after escalating their concerns for months if not years to the execs, they did jack sh*t. The CQC issued an improvement order, giving the Trust 2 months to sort their sh*t out, of course they didn't despite getting the MOD involved. The MOD then raised their concerns and subsequently the CQC told the Trust to close A&E at night and distribute staff throughout the daytime hours to ensure better cover. It was never a board decision, their hand was forced. The whole place is a mess, they haven't a clue what they are doing despite being guided and told for years and offered ample support and spening hundreds of thousands alone just in A&E on consultancy. The current interim A&E manager is on £500 a day to sort the place out, unsuccessful so far, the previous A&E interim manager was on £600 a day and he left the place in a far worse mess tahn when he started, he managed to bring in a computer system that no wanted only after beginning to implement a previous system at a cost of £100,000 which they then changed their minds. The system was to solve all woes despite the fact that bank and agency staff cannot use it and puts untold pressure on the one or two regular staff working there who then have to do the work of 3 or 3 people. In terms of the nursing shortages the plan is to redeploy the staff from two medical wards over in Cannock which have closed down. These staff have no A&E experience. Medical nursing on a ward is a different kettle of fish to A&E nursing and it will take at least a year to get medical nurses up to speed sort of in order provide some idea of safer care.

The amount of serious incidents has tripled in the department, A&E staff only hear this through the newspapers so there is no learning from mistakes which is ridiculous.

The place should be shut down completely, yes we need an A&E but at what cost. Serious incidents as mentioned above are when patients die unecessarily predominately. Is this what you want?

Last night I got hit quite badly in the hand playing hockey and had my first experience of having to travel to Stoke for A&E rather than use Stafford due to the night closures

In the past when I've attended Stafford A&E the process has been book in at reception, sit for up to 3 hours in the waiting room depending on day, time and number of emergencies etc (although I've never known it be less than 2 hours), be taken through to the cubicles to see a nurse practitioner who will advise if you need x-rays, if so be sent down to x-ray sometimes involving up to another 30 minutes wait, back to the cubicles to see a doctor who will then review the x-rays and give you a diagnosis

Things seemed to work much smoother and quicker at Stoke. Even though it was late on a Wednesday night the waiting room at Stoke was pretty full when I arrived so I thought I'd be in for a long wait. I was booked in and within about 15 minutes I'd been assessed by a triage nurse, sent for x-rays, had my x-rays and was back in the waiting room waiting to be seen by the Doctor. About another 30 minutes later I was being sent home after the Doctor had called me through, reviewed the x-rays which luckily revealed no broken bones

I'm aware the waiting times in Stafford could well be down to the lack of staff but the process just seemed to work better in Stoke so even with the 30 minutes each way drive up the A34, I reckon I was still home quicker than I would have been if Stafford A&E was open

I see that the letter is signed by two people, one of whom is Steve Powell. The Business Partner at my surgery is Steve Powell and I won't say what my opinion of him is. What happens if an ambulance is called because someone has had a heart attack. By the time they get to an A&E they could well be dead?

I've just had Jeremy Lefroy's current newsletter.

Jeremy Lefroy said:

Last week, the board of the Mid-Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust which is responsible for Stafford Hospital decided provisionally that the Emergency Department should reopen 24 hours a day from June 11th, provided that certain conditions were met.

Since the 10pm-8am closure began on 1st December last year, the Trust has been working extremely hard both to recruit consultants, middle-grade doctors and nurses and to give specialist training to staff. The performance of the Department has improved steadily over the past few months.

It is good news that the board feels able to accept the recommendation; but this will not mean any let-up in the work which is being done to improve the hospital’s services. I am grateful to all those who have worked hard over many months to secure these improvements.

Click to expand...

We'll see.

It seems that A&E will re-open to people with chest pains, from December - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-stoke-staffordshire-20151099 - but, only two a night, so get in early.

Note - You must arrive by ambulance to be in with a chance.