School closures claim during strikes Hospitals in county struggle to discharge their patients

SCHOOL leaders may have no choice but to close their doors to pupils during threatened strikes, the leader of a headteachers’ union has warned.

The warning came after teachers working in schools across Leicestershire joined colleagues across England and Wales in voting in favour of strike action in a dispute over pay.

Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT), said schools may have to shut during walkouts by teachers in England and Wales if “staffing numbers are dangerously low”.

The warning comes after the National Education Union (NEU) announced plans on Monday afternoon to hold seven days of walkouts in February and March as part of the dispute.

Nine out of 10 teacher members of the NEU who voted in the ballot backed strike action, and the union passed the 50 per cent ballot turnout required under employment law.

The ballot was described as being the biggest ballot result of any union in recent times by Kevin Courtney, the NEU’s joint general secretary.

The union has revealed that the first day of strikes will be on Wednesday, February 1, involving more than 23,000 schools in England and Wales.

It is expected to affect schools in both Leicester and the wider county.

Union leaders have said that any individual school will not be affected for more than four days.

Headteachers will not be participating in the strikes after a ballot organised by the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) failed to meet the required legal threshold.

Education Secretary Gillian Keegan was due to meet teaching union leaders today in a bid to avert the strikes.

Ms Keegan has admitted she cannot guarantee that schools will remain open during strikes by teachers.

She said introducing minimum service levels would protect “vulnerable children” in schools, but she hoped that the government’s proposed anti-strike legislation would not be needed for the teaching profession.

UNIVERSITY Hospitals Of Leicester NHS Trust has been struggling to discharge otherwise healthy patients this winter, adding to the pressures of the NHS crisis.

ONE issue facing the NHS is the inability to discharge patients.

The NHS publishes daily data on discharges over the course of the winter.

Using the last Thursday available to us as a snapshot, January 5th, we can see how many people were taking up beds despite being well enough to leave.

A total of 481 patients at University Hospitals Of Leicester NHS Trust were deemed to ‘no longer meet the criteria to reside’ at hospital on that day, according to data released by the NHS. Of those, 147 were discharged by 5pm, and 118 were discharged between 5pm and midnight.

That left 216 patients in hospital who were otherwise fit enough to leave.

It means that only 55% of patients who could have been discharged were actually discharged.

The discharge rate across the whole of England was 43%. However, the situation varies by trust.

The Northern Care Alliance has the worst discharge rate in the country at just 5%.

Stockport, Southport and Ormskirk, and Liverpool University trusts, meanwhile, have discharge rates of 7% each.

Warrington and Halton, and Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh have rates of 14%, while Hampshire has one of 19%.

One part of the NHS which feels the impact of the inability to discharge patients is A&E.

In the week up to January 8, a total of 773 people arrived at A&Es by ambulance at University Hospitals Of Leicester NHS Trust.

A total of 159 of those arrivals had to wait over an hour to be handed over from the ambulance.

A further 276 had to wait between 30 and 60 minutes to be admitted.