Group launches new interactive NHS tool

Tracker reveals problems with NHS in borough

AN INTERACTIVE map and patient testimony have highlighted the depth of the NHS crisis across Hinckley and Bosworth.

The postcode driven tool was launched by social change organisation 38 Degrees on the back of its petition to secure greater funding for the health service.

The local page also features anonymous testimonies from ordinary people in the borough on how the NHS has treated them.

District headline figures are that 33% in the area wait more than four hours to be seen in A&E against a Government target of 5% and a monstrous £399.3 million funding gap.

Campaigners at 38 Degrees hope the web-based tracker will highlight more effectively and simply the enormous problems facing the NHS thanks to the figures and patients sharing experiences.

Currently some 684 people in the Bosworth constituency have signed the petition, addressed to PM Theresa May and Jeremy Hunt, Secretary of State for Health, demanding an increase in spending to keep patients safe.

Nationally more than 328,000 signatures have been added with the figure increasing by the hour. The target is 500,000.

Laura Townshend, communications director at 38 Degrees, said: “This interactive map paints a worrying picture of how deep the NHS crisis goes. Patients who’ve been on the sharp end of an underfunded NHS will be able to see that their experience wasn’t a one-off - they’re part of a national picture of missed targets and staff making brave efforts to cope with a lack of resources.

“We hope politicians and the public alike will now get a better sense of just how serious the situation has become, and how quickly we need to act. Without the funding it needs, our NHS cannot guarantee that all of its patients are safe - and that’s a national scandal.”

An NHS England spokesperson said: “Hospitals are coming under increasing pressure but in the main are managing to cope.

“We continue to see the vast majority of patients within four hours and, in fact, the latest figures published by NHS Digital show that last year the median time to assessment was 11 minutes and, on average, patients left A&E just two hours and 40 minutes after arriving.

“This shows the fantastic job staff are doing in ensuring patients get the urgent care they need.”

Comments on the Bosworth page tell a story of long waits, cancelled operations, staff shortages misdiagnosis, poor access to GPs and lack of continuity and fundamental care.

One person said: “I have general osteoarthritis which started 40 years ago and causes me constant pain. Instead of offering me hip and knee replacements I have been prescribed painkillers for 20 years and in the previous 20 years I was prescribed anti-inflammatory medication.

“The NHS’s own website says you shouldn’t be on painkillers for more than a few days. If the NHS was better funded I’d have hip and knee replacements and wouldn’t need painkillers which are bad for my overall health.”

Waiting times are highlighted in another post: “I should go every six months for a regular check up of an eye condition but have had to wait 15 months this time which I was told was to do with shortage of staff.”

While the caring ethos is chal- lenged: “I have seen seven different consultants in nine sessions. There’s no continuity. I was treated as a difficult patient because I asked questions about medication choice.

“There were few explanations about diagnosis and little interest in symptoms with no explanation about why this was. Previously I had occasion to use podiatry under NHS though privatised. They use young people straight from college, give them no equipment to work with and expect them to do a good job - it’s all about making profit. Therefore privatisation doesn’t work.”

One person told how a hospital blunder has impacted his life financially, after he was misdiagnosed: “Unfortunately I had to cancel a holiday and claim on my insurance. While I have now been given the all-clear, this claim is now on my record and my insurance premium has been increased.”

You can find the tracker and sign the petition here http:// link.38degrees.org.uk/crisistrackerheader

More information is available via the 38 Degrees website, Facebook and Twitter account.