It’s no wonder our hospitals can’t cope
WHEN I moved to Oldham in 1970, the population was 90,000 and we had two hospitals. Today, the population is 240,000 and we have only one hospital — how are we supposed to cope? When I had the opportunity to speak to the then acting hospital CEO, I put the figures to him and asked if this was progress. With a shrug, he replied: ‘I don’t have an answer to that question.’ IAN ATKINSON, Oldham, Gtr Manchester. HAS it occurred to those in charge that the NHS bed crisis is down to there not being enough growth in the size of hospitals to accommodate the ever growing population?
Why weren’t the Nightingale hospitals retained for patients who are well enough to be discharged, but unable to look after themselves at home?
We need access to GPs seven days a week and face-to-face appointments. There should be more minor injury clinics. And to staff these, better pay needs to be offered to attract nurses.
SALLY FISHER, Saffron Walden, Essex. WHY isn’t the NHS making use of private hospital beds and facilities? I have been referred on several occasions for NHS procedures in private hospitals and that was when there wasn’t a health crisis of this magnitude.
NEIL COPPENDALE,
Shoreham-by-Sea, W. Sussex.
I HOPE that the patients ready for convalescence and being moved from hospital will have been checked
for Covid and flu before going into care homes. Will the nursing homes be paid the going rate? Self-funders should not pick up the bill for hospital discharges. The Nightingale hospitals were quickly erected at huge cost to cope with the pandemic. They should have been retained to accommodate people who need personal care and minimal nursing, rather than these unfortunate patients being called hospital bed blockers.
Name and address supplied.
THE NHS is thinking of putting patients in hotels for recuperation to ease the beds crisis. As many hotels are accommodating migrants, would it be appropriate to send the patients to the empty hotels in Rwanda?
The warmer climate would probably help them to get better quicker.
ANGELA BOOTH, Crawley, W. Sussex. ‘CARE hotels’ sound a lot like the convalescent homes we had in the 1960s. I wonder what happened to them?
J. HARPER, Stourbridge, W. Mids.