Kentish Express Ashford & District
We need A&E but it must get better
Our Man in Westminster
RE: Winter in A&E. I was phoned to visit a neighbour who had arrived by ambulance unaccompanied at the William Harvey Hospital.
As I reached the corridor leading from the main complex to A&E, I realised the pressure the system was under as trolleys with desperately ill people were parked lining the corridor as they queued to be seen.
The receptionist directed me to my neighbour but with a trembling voice that indicated she may have known the administration was presiding over something indefensible.
A new system has evidently replaced that of previous decades whereby a large ward with some eight examination couches either side in substantial curtained bays plus a seating area for the mobile wounded used to suffice most of the time for demand. Now for all but the most acute cases there is a triaging system whereby patients are assessed before entering through the main A&E, or discharged home. This assessment system takes place often over many hours with patients seated in poor conditions in small side rooms.
At last my neighbour gets called to see the doctor in the next room but the two curtained off bays are now so small that there is only just room for the doctor and not accompanying family. I have sent my conclusions to the Care Quality Commission which readers will recall brought the William Harvey into special measures in 2014. Our area cannot do without the William Harvey A&E and yet there is a lack of capacity in its new A&E assessment system; seriously ill people are being treated with lack of dignity and a disregard for the implication of their medical conditions.
Lack of manpower in the facilities and staff to check on patients also seems a factor and there is room for improvement along the lines of a volunteer system (such as I have heard of in New Zealand) whereby unaccompanied patients receive surveillance and help from volunteers. If you are inclined to think that all is well with the health service in this country, go through our A&E corridors; you will see something that will make you change your mind.
Cllr Wendy Nevard
After spending much of my energy since the election on matters concerning roads, this week I am turning my attention to rail.
I called a debate in the Commons “second” Chamber, Westminster Hall, to discuss the need for new rolling stock on the high speed line.
We all know how important the line is for Ashford, and indeed how at its best it is one of the success stories of the rail network, providing travel which is not only fast but more reliable than most lines.
This level of performance is reflected in the regular passenger satisfaction surveys.
The problem now is the service has become too popular for its own good.
Overcrowding is a serious and growing problem.
The operator has tried to compensate by changing the number of carriages on the most popular peak-time services and improving the repairs and maintenance programme so that more of the rolling stock is available at any one time, but this is not enough.
Essentially we need more rolling stock on the line.
Passenger numbers have grown by an average of 11.7% every year since 2010, and there is no evidence that this increase in demand is going to slow down in the near future.
Indeed with major housing developments planned not only in Ashford but in other places along the line, we can expect the opposite.
The need for extra train services, and longer trains more often, is clear.
On current projections 31 high speed services a day will be full to capacity by 2025, meaning that no passenger will be able to board even to stand all the way.
Another 25 a day will have standing room only.
So I am asking ministers first of all to acknowledge that this problem is real, and then to commit to devising a solution which will allow passengers to continue to enjoy the benefits of highspeed rail. We need decisions very soon to avoid this looming difficulty.