National disgrace
POP-UP surgery units are vital in dealing with emergencies – but they should not become the norm in Scottish hospitals.
Yet there are treatment and operating rooms in car parks at seven hospitals now.
At a time when targets are missed, waiting lists are long and A&E departments are packed to capacity, the service is crying out for funds.
In Scotland, the NHS has been used as a political football.
The scandal of closed hospitals and avoidable, fatal infections should sharpen minds as we head to the polls on Thursday.
Not one vote will alter the make-up of the Scottish Government on Thursday but if politics is about priorities, our elected leaders have much to answer for.
Doctors and nurses don’t get to decide the level of spending.
But on Thursday, health service staff and a weary public will all have the power to send a powerful message – protect the NHS.
HEART, breast and orthopedic operations are all being carried out in temporary units in Scots hospital car parks.
On-site consulting, treatment and operating rooms have been installed in at least seven of our hospitals, a Daily Record investigation has found. Labour last night said this indicates Scotland’s NHS is “at breaking point”. Other uses include gynaecological operations, cataract operations, MRI scans and a minor injury unit to deal with the casualty overspill. There are units in the Golden Jubilee National Hospital, Clydebank, the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, Glasgow, Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, Woodend Hospital, Aberdeen, Raigmore Hospital, Inverness, Hairmyres Hospital, East Kilbride and St John’s Hospital, Livingston. And
while health boards insist there is little difference in treatment in the units and the main hospital, one pensioner who was treated in a mobile eye unit condemned his treatment.
William Gold, 74, from the east end of Glasgow, had a cataract operation at the Golden Jubilee.
William, who is disabled, said: “I didn’t know I would be treated outside the main building.
“I went to the main reception with my wife and she said someone would come to collect us. My wife was told to stay in the cafe and they took me through a fire door, down a metal ramp where there were what looked like four cabins joined together.
“If you go to Glasgow Royal Infirmary or Stobhill, you are taken into a changing room and given a smock to put on but I was just given plastic covers to put over my shoes and hair and kept all my clothes on.
“I thought, ‘they’re the professionals’, so I just accepted it and the operation itself went well – but I didn’t want it to be done in a cabin.”
William told of his experience after reading in the Daily Record about the temporary minor injury units being installed in the QEUH.
The plans is to alleviate pressure on the A&E department and to provide Hairmyres with a temporary operating theatre while a theatre in the hospital is being refurbished.
But our investigation revealed another three health boards are also using temporary buildings.
Highland Health Board has two Vanguard units with staffing shared between the NHS and private firm
Vanguard Healthcare Solutions. An NHS Highland spokesman said: “One is to provide increased capacity for the hospital and help to reduce orthopaedic waiting times, the other replaces reduced capacity while our main theatres are upgraded.
“Gynaecology and breast surgery is carried out in this one.”
Lothian health board has one “temporary” unit used as an endoscopy suite.
NHS Grampian has two mobile MRI units, one at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary which has been used for “a number of years” and a second at Woodend Hospital.
The health board also has a mobile cath lab at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, which has diagnostic imaging equipment used to visualise the arteries of the heart and the chambers of the heart and treat any stenosis or abnormality. Procedures can include angioplasties and biopsies.
Last night, Labour’s health spokeswoman Monica Lennon sad: “The use of temporary buildings to provide patient care should be a last resort but we are now seeing car park cabins popping up around the country.
“This is a worrying trend, especially where they are being used for major surgery and are not connected to the main hospital.
“Patients and staff in a 21st-century health service deserve better. The NHS in Scotland is at breaking point.
“Instead of celebrating the installation of car park operating theatres, SNP ministers should be properly resourcing the health service and addressing the almost £1billion repairs and maintenance backlog.”
A spokeswoman from the Golden Jubilee said a phase one expansion of the hospital is to create a new eye centre specialising in cataract surgery.
She said: “Currently, 96 per cent of our cataract patients would recommend our services. To date, we have not received any patient feedback relating to the issues highlighted.”
A Scottish Government spokesman said: “Temporary units are safe and meet all required health and safety standards for patient treatment.
“These units help support health board activity and tackle long waiting lists and allow boards to maintain patient services while hospital maintenance and refurbishment work is under way.”