A critical issue

Time for the NHS to help itself

HOSPITALS ARE already bracing themselves for the inevitable surge in emergency admissions this winter. The size of this challenge is illustrated by the record number of patients that some A&E units have been treating during the summer when the workload of casualty staff traditionally falls.

Yet, while there are calls for increased funding as a growing number of patients are not seen within the Department of Health’s notional four-hour target, the National Health Service is not getting a sufficient grip on out-of-hours care.

According to expert research from the University of Sheffield that explains, in part, the welldocumented day-to-day pressures facing hospitals, a quarter of walk-in patients attending casualty in this county were requiring treatment for the most minor of ailments.

The clue is in the name – Accident and Emergency. These units, staffed by highly-trained medical professionals, provide world-class care for those with serious ailments or potentially life-threatening illnesses and injuries. They were never intended to treat those with a sniffle – or less. And, if out-of-hours GP care and cover was fit for purpose, hospitals would not be buckling under the pressure at a time when the NHS enjoys record funding – a point Theresa May reiterated at Prime Minister’s Questions.

Rather than the Tories and Labour trading statistics – and insults – to mask their respective shortcomings, they should be working together, and with trusts at a local level, to boost, still further, the cover provided by GPs at nighttime and over weekends. In short, it’s time for the NHS to help itself.