Another kind of 'Victory'.

This is a kind of ‘victory’; a recognition that car park charges at hospitals are a tax on staff, patients and their visitors. The only fair system is rationing spaces on need and using revenues from car parking to help those using public transport get to hospital.

 

BBC News 23 August 2014

Hospital car parking guidance to reduce some charges

Hospitals in England have been told to cut the cost of parking for certain groups under new government guidelines.

Ministers said relatives of people who were seriously ill or had to stay in hospital for a long time should be given free parking or reduced charges.

Concessions should also be offered to people with disabilities and NHS staff whose shift patterns meant they could not use public transport, they said.

Labour accused the coalition of dropping plans to scrap the charges.

Hospital parking policies are set by individual NHS trusts.

The Department of Health guidance made it clear trusts were responsible for the actions of private car parking contractors running facilities on their behalf.

'Rip-off' costs

 

The guidelines also recommended hospitals should use "pay-on-exit" schemes so motorists pay only for the time they use in a hospital car park.

And they say trusts should waive fines if a visitor or patient overstays through no fault of their own, for example because treatment took longer than planned, or when staff have to work beyond their scheduled shift.

 

“Hospital parking has become a stealth tax on the vulnerable”

Robert Halfon, Conservative MP for Harlow

 

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said: "Patients and families shouldn't have to deal with the added stress of unfair parking charges.

"These clear ground rules set out our expectations, and will help the public hold the NHS to account for unfair charges or practices."

Mr Hunt had come under pressure from Conservative backbenchers to put an end to "rip-off" costs.

As part of that campaign, Harlow MP Robert Halfon sent Freedom of Information requests to almost 400 hospitals in England. The data he collected shows big differences in average costs across the country.

London had the highest charges, with an average of £20 a day and more than £130 a week.

The lowest charges were in the East Midlands, where parking costs were £3.50 per day and £11 per week.

Average patient and visitor parking charges in England

      Per hour Per day Per week

      Source: Freedom of Information requests compiled by Robert Halfon MP

      East of England  £2  £8.50  £25

      East Midlands    £1  £3.50  £11

      London                £2  £20     £131.50

      North East          £1  £3.50  £20.50

      North West        £2  £5.50  £19

      South East          £2  £9.50  £29

      West Midlands  £2  £6.50  £22.50

      Yorkshire            £1  £4.50  £29

 

Mr Halfon described the announcement as a "massive step forward" but said he wanted to see charges scrapped altogether, at a cost of £200m.

"Hospital parking has become a stealth tax on the vulnerable," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

"The stories that we've had of people not being able to use the machines so they haven't been able to see their dying relatives is quite horrific and we have to make a change."

 

'Extortionate'

 

Ben Ruth, who received two parking tickets as he visited his dying father in the Royal Lancaster Infirmary, said the experience left him feeling "sickened".

"The second one was stuck on the windscreen when I left the hospital ward just after my father passed away," he said.

"I've rarely felt such rage as I felt right then. After the exceptional kindness of the medical staff in my father's ward, I felt grievously assaulted."

Macmillan Cancer Support said some patients were paying "extortionate" charges "in order to access treatment for a life-threatening illness".

Welcoming Mr Hunt's announcement, Duleep Allirajah - head of policy at the charity - urged hospitals not to ignore the guidance.

"Hospitals must... commit to implementing the guidelines as a matter of urgency so that cancer patients do not continue to pay unfair hospital parking charges," he said.

 

Neil Harris

(a don’t stop till you drop production)

Home: helpmesortoutthenhs.blogspot.com

Contact me: neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com

A leak in the west London Birthing pool.

This Evening Standard article highlights the cioncerns in West London over the wholesale closure of Accident and Emergency and Maternity departments.

The argument is that the creation of ‘super hospitals’ specialising in particular disciplines will result in better patient outcomes and economies of scale.

The problem is that A and E and maternity actually need to be local – it’s the complicated cases that need specialisms.

Any way things aren’t going well and they will get worse – lose either you’re a and E or your maternity department now – kiss your hospital goodbye in the next round of cuts;

 

Women giving birth in west London hospitals ‘face poor care and potential risks’

'Potential risks': a warning was issued about “inadequate” maternity care in

 

West London

Ross Lydall, Health Editor

Evening Standard

20 August 2014

A warning was issued today about “inadequate” maternity care in west London — ahead of services coming under further pressure with the axing of a busy unit.

Hospital inspectors said women giving birth at Northwick Park hospital, in Harrow, could not always summon help and the slow “pace of change” created “potential risks”. Caring was rated inadequate while the department, responsible for 5,600 births a year, “requires improvement” overall.

 

The Care Quality Commission’s report comes amid concerns at the wider impact of closing the maternity unit at Ealing hospital next summer. Most of its 2,800 births are expected to be split between Northwick Park and West Middlesex, in Hounslow, though emergency and complex cases will transfer to St Mary’s in Paddington.

 

Professor Sir Mike Richards, the CQC’s chief inspector of hospitals, said senior staff had to be empowered to make changes in maternity and the A&E at Northwick Park, the biggest of three hospitals within North West London NHS trust.

Women told the CQC and reported in surveys that care fell below expectations.

The environment and equipment on paediatric wards also needed to be improved, inspectors said after their announced visit in May.

 

Sir Mike praised the trust’s “caring and compassionate” employees but said staff shortages made it difficult for them to meet individual needs. He added:

“Ongoing improvements to maternity services also need to be sustained, and further changes made at a much greater pace.”

 

The daytime-only A&E department at Central Middlesex hospital, in Harlesden, was rated “good” — weeks before it is due to be shut down. The leader of Ealing council today called on the trust to halt the closure on September 10.

 

Julian Bell said the report raised “serious questions” about the plan and said it would “push patients to a poorer service at Northwick Park”.

 

The CQC report ordered trust bosses to improve staffing levels in the A&E, surgery and critical care departments at Northwick Park and St Mark’s hospitals.

Overall, the trust “requires improvement” but its hyper-acute stroke unit was praised for providing a “gold-standard service”.

 

David McVittie, chief executive of the trust, said: “A significant amount of work is already under way to improve safety and effectiveness of care in our maternity unit. In addition, a new £21million A&E department will open at Northwick Park in the autumn.”

 

The Shaping A Healthier Future programme, which is centralising maternity and emergency care in “super-hospitals”, said: “We can give full assurance for women who are currently booked to have their baby at Ealing hospital to use the maternity unit with confidence.

Neil Harris

(a don’t stop till you drop production)

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The benefits of privatisation.

This piece from ‘The Independent’ highlights the problems that are bubbling up from government policy to force hospitals to use private healthcare providers.

Then again for the Tories it’s been a success; it’s started the process of stealing the NHS from us and it’s made a lot of profits for their business friends and sponsors;

Dozens of NHS patients have been left with damage to their eyes, including partial loss of sight, after undergoing routine cataract operations which had been outsourced to a private provider.

 

A hospital in Somerset is now facing a slew of legal claims from patients who say they were left with problems including blurred vision, pain and swelling after undergoing cataract removal operations at a unit run by Vanguard Healthcare, which operated on the hospital site.

 

The scandal will raise serious questions about the Coalition Government’s plans to expand the role of private providers working in the NHS.

 

Vanguard had been under contract to Musgrove Park Hospital, in Taunton, since May to help clear a backlog of patients. Of 62 people who underwent cataract operations, 31 reported poor outcomes, according to lawyers for the patients. Cataract operations usually have a very low complication rate, typically around in one 400.

 

Laurence Vick, head of clinical negligence at Michelmores Solicitors, which is acting for a number of the patients affected, said the case “uncovered the uneasy relationship between the NHS and the private sector”.

 

“We don’t know what arrangements are in place for Musgrove to recoup their outlay and losses on this contract from Vanguard,” he said. “From the taxpayer’s point of view, it would be totally unreasonable for Vanguard to walk away from this scandal with only their reputation, and not their [investment], damaged… It is crucial that an episode of this kind is not dismissed as an anomaly – a hybridised, public-private NHS will need to be wary of similar issues in future.”

 

Patients affected are now having their side-effects treated at the hospital itself. Lawyers for some of the patients, most of whom were elderly and vulnerable, said it was likely the NHS Trust would have to pay for any successful compensation claims – meaning that the taxpayer would be footing the bill.

 

Among those affected was an 84-year-old man, whose son, Chris Newcombe, is now calling for an independent inquiry. Mr Newcombe says his father experienced blurred vision and swollen corneas after being operated on at the Vanguard mobile surgery unit.

 

Mr Newcombe told the Somerset County Gazette: “My father is traumatised and depressed with the loss of his eyesight. Previous pleasures of gardening and watching sport on the TV have now been taken away from him. This could have been prevented if the welfare of the patients had been thought about, rather than this urgency of just getting people through.”

 

His parents had “only praise and admiration” for staff at Musgrove’s own ophthalmology department, who have since been treating his father, he said.

 

The Trust said that due to an ongoing investigation into the matter, they could not comment “in detail on the sequence of events surrounding the unfortunate complications experienced by our patients receiving cataract surgery with Vanguard Healthcare in their mobile theatre at Musgrove Park Hospital. Our first and foremost concern has always been our patients, and particularly those who have experienced complications,” the statement said. “We have been in very close contact with them since the incident to ensure they are fully informed with our progress and receive the highest quality aftercare and treatment.”

 

Chief executive Jo Cubbon said that “early into the arrangement” with Vanguard in May, “technical issues in the facility had arisen and it became necessary to cease the service arrangements in place”.

 

Ian Gillespie, chief executive of Vanguard Healthcare, said: “Patient care is our number one priority and we’re working closely with the Trust to understand and fully investigate the root causes of any complications… Operations were carried out in Vanguard’s operating theatre by highly qualified surgeons, approved by the hospital.”

 

The Department for Health was yet to respond last night.

 

Profile: Vanguard

 

Founded in 2002 and headquartered in Brockworth, Gloucester, Vanguard’s key service is the hire of mobile operating theatres, dedicated mobile endoscopy units, wards, and clinics to public and private hospitals. The company’s latest accounts show a £576,000 profit on sales of £11.3m in 2013, a rise of more than 10 per cent. Its 57 staff – 35 technical and 22 administrative – earned an average of almost £53,000.

 

Vanguard Executive Chairman and co-founder Andrew Allen, a chartered accountant, spent the past 20 years as owner/manager of healthcare businesses. According to Vanguard’s website “three of these businesses were backed by private equity, and realised returns upon exit well in excess of 30 per cent p.a. for investors”.

Neil Harris

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Home: helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com

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Waiting at the gate.

This is taken from ‘The Independent’ newspaper, based on labour party research.

Accident and Emergency departments have national guidelines limiting the time taken for patients to be admitted or discharged. They use many ruses to reduce this time; one of which is keeping patients waiting in ambulances outside.

So the clock doesn’t start ticking……

Hundreds of thousands of sick patients have been forced to wait in ambulances outside emergency units - some stranded for up to eight hours - according to new figures, because hospitals have been left "full to bursting".

Data obtained by the Labour Party show that patients are being cared for in vehicles outside A&E units for hours at a time, as “handover delays” continue to affect people up and down the country.

The new statistics, obtained through Freedom of Information requests, show that 280,000 patients suffered “handover delays” of at least 30 minutes during 2013/14, which includes 30,000 people who were forced to wait for an hour or more.

Information highlighting three areas where people were worst affected showed that patients had waited up to eight hours and 11 minutes in West Midlands to get to the emergency units.

Delays in other parts of the country showed people stranded in ambulances for seven and a half hours, while waits in London were over six hours.

 

 NHS England says ambulances could become 'more of a mobile treatment service'  Labour shadow health minister Jamie Reed told the Telegraph the figures show that under David Cameron, hospitals have become “full to bursting,” making ambulances queue at the doors for hours on end.

 

“Thousands of vulnerable people, many of them elderly and frightened, are being wrongly held in the backs of ambulances because hospitals don't have the space,” he said.

 

The figures show an 87 per cent rise in the number of people forced to wait over 30 minutes since 2010/11, and a 50 per cent rise in people waiting over an hour.

 

But the NHS England has countered the figures with its own data, claiming that the number of ambulance handover delays for the winter of 2013/14 were down on the previous year by 30 per cent. However, the data only covers the winter period.

 

An NHS England spokesperson said: “We know that demands on ambulances are rising every year, and we’re allocating a further £28 million to ambulance providers to help them deal with these pressures.

 

“However in some cases it may be the right thing to do for a patient to be cared for in the ambulance before transfer to stabilise their condition.”

NHS guidelines state that new arrivals to A&E should enter hospitals within 15 minutes, but NHS England said one of the aims of its Urgent and Emergency Care Review is to “capitalise on the skills and abilities of paramedics and the wider workforce so that ambulances can become more of a mobile treatment service, rather than just a transport service.”

Eh, no, I don’t think so – ambulances are only that; transport. It’s different to have paramedics doing triage but when the ambulance is at the hospital the patient needs to be seen by a doctor as soon as possible.

Neil Harris

(a don’t stop till you drop production)

Home: helpmesortoutthenhs.blogspot.com

contact me: neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com
amb

 

The best health provider in the world - the NHS.

I’ve been very critical of the NHS where it fails us, but on this Blog and on;

helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com

I’ve always made it clear that the NHS is the best and fairest health provider in the world. It’s nice to have some independent confirmation in this Daily Telegraph article which is actually based on a Guardian Article;

Keith Perry 17 Jun 2014

The National Health Service has been praised as the world's best health-care system by an international panel of experts who said it was superior to those found in countries which spend far more on health.

 

 

The study, entitled “Mirror, Mirror on the Wall,” also described US healthcare provision as the worst globally. Despite investing the most money in health, the US refuses care to many patients without health insurance and is also the worst at saving the lives of people who fall ill, it found.

 

 

The Commonwealth Fund, a Washington-based foundation produced the report. The fund is respected around the world for its analysis of the performance of different countries' health systems. It examined 11 countries, including detailed data from patients, doctors and the World Health Organisation, the Guardian reported.

 

 

"The United Kingdom ranks first overall, scoring highest on quality, access and efficiency," the fund's researchers conclude in their 30-page report. Their findings amount to a huge endorsement of the health service, especially as it spends the second-lowest amount on healthcare among the 11 – just £2,008 per head, less than half the £5,017 in the US. Only New Zealand, with £1,876, spent less.

 

 

In the Commonwealth Fund study, the UK came first out of the 11 countries in eight of the 11 measures of care the authors looked at. It came top on measures including providing effective care, safe care, co-ordinated care and patient-centred care. The fund also rated the NHS as the best for giving access to care and for efficient use of resources.

 

The only serious criticism of the NHS was its poor record on keeping people alive. On a composite "healthy lives" score, which includes deaths among infants and patients who would have survived had they received timely and effective healthcare, the UK came 10th. The authors say that the healthcare system cannot be solely blamed for this issue, which is strongly influenced by social and economic factors. Although the NHS came third overall for the timeliness of care, its "short waiting times" were praised. "There is a frequent misperception that trade-offs between universal coverage and timely access to specialised services are inevitable. However, the Netherlands, UK and Germany provide universal coverage with low out-of-pocket costs while maintaining quick access to speciality services,", the report added.

 

The NHS also outperforms the other countries – which include France, Germany and Canada – in managing the care of people who are chronically ill, the report said.

 

Dr Mark Porter, leader of the doctors' union, the British Medical Association, told the Guardian the fund's findings were "clear evidence that our much-maligned NHS is one of the top-performing healthcare systems in the world.

 

"We should not be complacent as we are facing pressures that are threatening the high-quality care that the Commonwealth Fund has rightly praised. A combination of rising patient demand, staff shortages and falling funding is undermining the very foundations of the NHS, as is the constant short-term interference from politicians of all colours."

 

Dr Peter Carter, chief executive of the Royal College of Nursing, said: "I'm absolutely thrilled to see this because it reinforces that this is a very good NHS, despite the fact that it has such a low level of funding relative to other countries."

 

Jeremy Hunt, the Health Secretary, who has been criticised by some senior doctors for painting an unfairly negative picture of NHS staff and the quality of care provided, welcomed the report. "NHS staff work incredibly hard to care for patients and these encouraging results pay testament to that," he said.

 

Neil Harris

(a don’t stop till you drop production)

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What we really think about the NHS.

NSee?

It’s easy………when you know what you are doing!

You would think that everyone agreed with the Government and the managers of the NHS.

Static budgets at a time of high inflation means real cuts to the NHS.

At the same time the cost of care for the elderly and the cost of new drugs soars.

That means real cuts in services.

That’s what we all want, isn’t it?

Eh no, here’s a Guardian report on an IPSOS/MORI opinion poll in May 2014 which shows what we all feel about the NHS and it’s future;

 

 

Denis Campbell, health correspondent

 

   

The Guardian, Thursday 8 May 2014 20.43 BST     

 

 

Four out of five people in Britain believe the NHS should be protected from government spending cuts, according to a survey which reaffirmed the high level of affection in which the service is held.

 

Asked which two or three areas of public spending should be exempt from more austerity, respondents identified the NHS and healthcare (79%), schools (51%), care for the elderly (51%), the police (39%) and social services (21%).

 

Some 49% agreed that the NHS should be given more money "so that it can continue to provide services in the same way it does at the moment", while only 7% backed further rationing of care, in research undertaken by Ipsos MORI. Asked to name the biggest problem facing the NHS, 38% said lack of resources, 27% identified understaffing and 24% mentioned long waiting times.

 

Despite a series of care scandals such as Mid Staffs, Morecambe Bay and Winterbourne View, the NHS remains the thing that makes most people proud to be British. In all 52% identified the NHS as that institution, more than the armed forces (47%), royal family (33%), Team GB (26%) and the BBC (22%). That 52% is 7% up on 2012, when Ipsos MORI last asked that question.

 

But concern about the NHS's future is rising. One in four (24%) said it was one of the most important issues facing the country, a higher figure than in 2012.

 

Some 67% rated the quality of their healthcare as good, with another 17% describing it as very good. But 73% believe that the problems uncovered at Stafford Hospital, scene of the service's biggest scandal in years, exist in some, most or all other hospitals.

 

Britons are also among the most negative internationally about how sustainable their health services are, given the NHS is facing rising demand and further years of tight budgets. In the survey of public opinion in 20 countries only 9% said they expected the quality of healthcare on offer to improve, while in the UK 43% said "get worse".

So now we know how everybody feels about the NHS, we need to make our voice heard.

 

Neil Harris

(a don’t stop till you drop production) 

Home:  helpmesortoutthenhs.blogspot.com

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The real truth about those 'timewasting' patients attending Accident and Emergency.

This is from the Guardian today, 22/5/14 and it’s based on a survey by The College of Emergency Medicine. As you probably know, I’m a big fan of their work.

I’m a big fan of this, because it confirms articles I’ve written before which have used evidence to show that people at Accident and Emergency departments are not ‘time wasters’, attending with minor ailments.

I’d go further; the small number of attendances that could have been dealt with at a G.P.’s surgery – how were the patients to know before they learnt what the problem was at A and E?

The arguments that patients were time wasters came from administrators and politicians who were trying to deflect blame away from themselves for underproviding A and E capacity.

And some lazy bad Doctors.

Have you tried attending an A and E recently?

College of Emergency medicine says only one in seven cases at emergency departments are non-urgent

 

 

  theguardian.com, Thursday 22 May 2014 06.57 BST    

 

One in seven people who attend A&E could be dealt with by a GP but the rest are justified in going to an NHS emergency department, new research suggests.

 

 

The College of Emergency Medicine found that 15% of people who attended A&E departments could be treated in the community rather than as an emergency case in hospital.

 

 

"[But] the fact that only 15% of attendees at emergency departments could be safely redirected to a primary care clinician without the need for emergency department assessment is a statistic that must be heeded by those who wish to reconfigure services," said Dr Clifford Mann, president of the college.

 

The figure equated to 2.1 million patients who come through the doors of emergency departments every year, the college spokesman said. Children with minor illnesses were among them.

 

The finding prompted the college to renew its calls for the establishment of GP centres within emergency departments.

 

The college argues that emergency health services are facing a shortage inspecialist doctors, rising numbers of people attending centres and a lack of accessible and effective alternatives to A&E.

 

"Providing a more appropriate resource for the 2.1 million patients represented by this figure would substantially decongest emergency departments," said Mann.

 

"Decongesting emergency departments is key to relieving the unprecedented levels of pressure placed upon them and improving patient care."

 

Seperately, Sky News said a freedom of information request had revealed that hundreds of thousands of patients were being sent home from hospital in the middle of the night, despite a promise to cut down on the practice.

 

 

More than 300,000 people had been discharged from hospitals between 11pm and 6am since 2012, an average of 400 a night. Many of them were elderly, giving rise to concerns that vulnerable people may be unsafe or struggle to get home at unsociable hours.

 

 

The figures, uncovered through Freedom of Information requests by Sky News, revealed that in almost half of cases the proportion of patients discharged overnight also increased.

 

 

The NHS has in the past been accused of persisting in the widespread practice to help free up beds for other patients.

 

 

In 2012 Sir Bruce Keogh, NHS England's medical director, called on hospitals to reduce the number of patients being discharged overnight. "It is simply not fair to be sending people home late at night. We will look at this."

 

Dr Mike Smith, chairman of the Patients Association, told Sky News: "They have got people in A&E chomping at the bit, lying in corridors, they have got to be admitted and they have no beds.

"It's for the convenience of staff and the person they are admitting but at the gross detriment to the person they are chucking out."

 

A spokesman for NHS England told Sky News: "Discharging patients at night without appropriate support is unacceptable, particularly if a patient is vulnerable."

Jamie Reed MP, Labour's shadow health minister, criticised the prevalence of the issue. "Hospitals are operating above safe levels. Ministers promised to put an end to this practice two years ago but it's getting worse. It's further proof you can't trust the Tories with the NHS."

What all this shows is that all those 'clever' managers who shut wards, closed hospitals, merged and shut Accident and Emergency Departments were just creating more and more problems.

Neil Harris

(a don’t stop till you drop production)

By the way, if you are a little bored or listless – why not take a look at my other Blog;

Help Me Sort Out St Peters!

X helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com

 

 

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