What is being done to address winter challenges hospitals face?
IT’S getting towards that time of year again when the NHS rarely leaves the news headlines.
The bad weather we can expect in winter will lead to a rise in demand for NHS services, especially at accident and emergency departments, and, as we know, our local casualty department suffers more than most.
But if you think long delays are a winter thing, it’s probably time to think again.
The government expects hospitals to see A&E patients within four hours of arriving in 95 per cent of cases.
However, over the summer, only 72pc of people arriving at East Lancashire Hospitals Trust were seen within four hours, compared to 74pc last year.
It’s only a slight deterioration year on year, but a significant move.
And that’s before the winter hits.
Last year, Blackburn’s A&E – where you and I are most likely to go if we call an ambulance – was blighted by long delays for treatment, with ambulances sometimes queuing up to get in as staff inside the department were stretched beyond belief.
The hospital trust has said it has had occasions where it’s getting up to 85pc, which is obviously better – but still not where the government expects.
Of course, it’s one thing for the government to expect, another to make sure hospital trusts get the money they need to do their jobs.
And quite another to actually force through steps which reduce the pressure on A&Es in the first place.
Every winter, there’s talk of making more doctor appointments available for people to go to GPs rather than hospitals.
Then there’s the 111 service which we’re supposed to ring if we’re not feeling well so they can direct where we can go.
Or you can try the minor injuries centres in places like Rawtenstall, but when ill, and often scared, it’s often simpler and more reassuring to go straight to A&E.
One of the Conservatives’ flagship policies when it came to power as part of the coalition government in 2010 was to give GPs more say over how money is spent.
These Clinical Commissioning Groups are run by GPs locally, they decide how NHS money is spent.
And they are remarkably opaque as organisations.
Questions should be asked about what they are doing to address the inevitable winter challenges our hospitals will face.
They, after all, decide how the money is spent, and need to be accountable for what happens as a result of their spending decisions.
That has to include explaining what efforts they’ve taken to relieve the burden on A&E departments this winter, so that the worried well, minorly ill and those who generally don’t need to be in Blackburn’s waiting room are treated elsewhere.
Over the last decade, the trend has been for the NHS to centralise into expert centres, and over the last few decades we’ve seen services move from places like Rossendale into bigger towns.
That makes complete sense – if frustrating sense – for many specialist services, but at the same time, it seems that all too often the same is true of A&E.
If in doubt, people go to A&E, and there’s only one in East Lancashire now.
The Winter NHS crisis is an annual fixture.
Our local healthcare commissioners need to be accountable for the steps they are taking to make it easier to understand where to go for help, and making more help, more available, here in Rossendale.