Campaigners fear for future of children’s ward amid staffing crisis
Paediatric ward will become an assessment unit during the day
Furious campaigners fear for the future of the children’s ward at St John’s Hospital after a fresh staffing crisis forced it to close to inpatients for the third time in six years.
The paediatric ward will instead become an assessment unit during the day from Friday, July 7, with children being seen in the hospital’s emergency department at night and weekends. Children who need to be admitted will be transferred to the Royal Hospital for Sick Children.
NHS Lothian said it had taken the “difficult and deeply frustrating decision” to ensure patient safety as it struggles to recruit enough doctors.
But council leaders have branded the situation “unacceptable” and urged the Scottish Government to take urgent action.
The hospital was hit by similarsummershutdownsin2012 and 2015, with widespread dismay greeting yesterday’s news.
The Scotsman understands the staffing crisis has been so bad in previous years that it has even been forced to close whenahusbandandwife,who are both doctors there, went on holiday together.
Ellen Glass of campaign group Action To Save St John’s Hospital said: “It’s an absolute disgrace that this could happen in this day and age.
“How are parents going to get over to Sick Children in Edinburgh? Who’s going to look after children left at home while they’re there.”
NHS Lothian’s chief officer of acute services Jacquie Campbell said the issue had been caused by being unable to “reliably secure the levels of staffing required overnight and at weekends to guarantee a safe service”.
“If we don’t make changes now to the operating hours of the children’s ward, we run the risk of having to make an unplanned closure at a few hours’ notice, which would lead to the sudden diversion of patients,” she said.
“This reduction in opening hours is the safest option for the children of West Lothian.
“We are committed to reinstating the full service as soon as possible after the summer and will be working with the Chief Medical Officer, Scottish Government and the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health to review the steps we have taken and to identify what else can be done to guarantee safe, sustainable staffing for this service.”
Last year a study by the RCPCH recommended the ward be retained after previous temporary closures for the same reason.
About 1,000 children are admitted to the hospital for treatment each year with two overnight resident doctors and an on-call consultant needed for a 24 hour, sevenday-a-week service.
Opposition parties said local residents would be “furious” at the latest closure. The Tories’ Miles Briggs blamed the move on the “failure” of the SNP government to deliver a national plan for the NHS. “It will be greeted with dismay and disappointment by parents and local people across the area,” he said.