It’s the middle of summer, but fears of an NHS winter crisis are already forming

PLANS CRITICISED AS BEING TOO REACTIVE, NOT PREVENTATIVE

CONCERNS are already being raised over how hospitals will cope this winter after health bosses spoke about their plans.

Staff from University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust (UHL) talked through winter resilience with councillors and representatives from the police and fire service at a recent Health and Wellbeing board meeting meeting.

But board members said that the plans were “reactive rather than preventative” and needed to be explained in more detail.

Mike Ryan, director of urgent and emergency care for Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland, spoke to the board about the pressures faced last winter by Leicester’s hospitals and health services.

“Winter is almost becoming a sixmonth thing, starting in October/ November time, ending April/May,” he said.

“There are a lot more attendances, a lot more activity, putting a considerable amount of added pressure across the system.”

Speaking after the presentation, John Adler, chief executive of UHL, said: “Last winter was particularly difficult and one of the difficulties was that it went on for a long time, which was very unusual.

“March was our worst month of the winter when normally that would be when we breathe a sigh of relief and becoming relatively civilised again.

“Looking forward there is good news and bad news, bad news is that we remain in a situation where, on the basis of how we are performing at the moment, we still do not have enough bed capacity for the number of patients coming into the hospitals in Leicester.

“There’s a limit to what we can do about that because of physical capacity restraints and staffing constraints.

“We’re starting to close that gap by opening more wards, thanks to phase two at last we have some sort of rattle room at LRI.

“One of those old wards will be converted into a ward and we’re actually building a ward at Glenfield as well.”

But Andrew Brodie, assistant chief fire officer at Leicestershire Fire and Rescue Service, criticised the plan.

He said that a preventative approach would be a more “human” way of stopping people being admitted to hospital.

“The thing that strikes me about this is that it is all reactive, so it’s all about once someone is ill enough to go into hospital,” he said.

“There’s nothing in this about preventing people from becoming ill enough to need to go into hospital.

“Building capacity, modelling how many people we can get through those beds is all well and good, but preventing people from becoming ill, making sure people’s homes are warm and dry, that they are well fed and hydrated and that they have company are more effective and human ways to solve this problem than simply creating capacity.

“Spending £50 in someone’s electric meter is surely better than spending thousands on having someone in a hospital bed for a few nights.”

Mr Adler responded and said that there is preventative work going in which was not featured in the presentation.

Councillor Vi Dempster said: “All it told me was that every single year things have been getting worse, and that last year was even worse if that was possible.

“There were cancelled operations, urgent and cancer operations.

“Given that occupancy rates are still quite high, I don’t have a lot of confidence for the winter.

“I know it’s July but we’ve already had the longest day of year, we are coming towards winter now and what is actually going to happen?

“I do feel very very concerned. At this moment in time how is the planning different to last winter’s planning?”

Health bosses responded and said that the presentation was a look back at the winter just gone and that a more detailed plan will be put before the board in September which will look at how they are preparing for winter pressures.

They also explained that phase two of the A&E department which recently opened, is expected to ease pressure this year.

Councillor Dempster added: “I recognise everyone is working incredibly hard, but I am concerned for the people of this city.”

■ NHS jargon is confusing other organisations and sidelining public, councillor warns. See Pages 12-13.