n h s emergency

[KateLMead]

I don't understand how they're suddenly in a state of emergency, there's no flu epidemic or anything

We have so many here down with a very nasty flu virus including myself and Gus my daughter.we have one of the best doctors surgeries the country excellent caring doctors.

[Workingman]

The hospitals are not declaring States of Emergency, they are calling Major Incidents. These allow them to bring in extra (expensive) staff.

The problems are twofold. Too many of us with non-emergency conditions using A&E when we should be using other services..... maybe even looking after ourselves. The other is that fit patients, but who need after care, have nowhere to go.

Neither of these problems is in any way, shape, or form, the fault of the NHS and it is time politicians stopped trying to score political points, and for the media to stop hammering the NHS.

[medsec222]

Agreed Frank. Politicians are using the NHS as a political football. We are an aging population, lots of us are living longer, medicines and treatments are more specialised and more expensive, and we have an open door immigration policy with free movement throughout Europe, all of which are bound to put extra pressures on the NHS. In addition, when Labour was in power it re-negotiated GP contracts giving them more money for less hours. I was working as a medical secretary at the time and the consultants were taken completely aback that the GPs had managed to negotiate such contracts. Now the Politicians are trying to get the GPs to go back to working longer hours, for even more money, but surprise, surprise, the GPs are quite happy as they are.

More money will have to come from somewhere to continue funding care at the point of need. Frank Field wrote an article recently when he suggested an increase in N1 should be considered as many people would be prepared to pay a little more to keep the service running efficiently. Control of our own borders might be another way of keeping NHS costs down.

[Suff]

I did wonder WM, but didn't have time t post it, whether the hospitals were using the "major incident" to allow them to exceed their budget. Caps are being put everywhere. Litigation against the HNS is causing shortfalls in patient care. I'm sure that their budgets have caveats which allow them to overspend where they have a critical issue which impacts x% of patient care.

The Beverley Allit litigation cases devastated the Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire hospital budgets for years. Damaging patient care and hospital investment. Literally it took around £11m out of the patient care budget.

However I'm very much in agreement that the politicians are using this for their own ends. Whether or not this has happened at the instigation of politicians in the first place is, I assume, pure surmise and has no foundation. But my bad mind can suspect....

[Workingman]

It seems quite obvious that Trusts are using the rules to gain access to extra funds, but let us not forget what Cheltenhan and Gloucester were saying - 30% of those at A&E were not A&E cases, they were minor injuries, GP or walk-in centre cases.

I know it sounds hard, but there has to be a way of turning these people away from A&E, or making them wait until real A&E patients are seen to.

I have recently needed to use A&E at LGI and they have a triage system where need is prioritised: Heart attack, priority; sore thumb, we'll see you when we can. If people want to sit for six hours with a sore thumb it becomes their choice.... a lot of them go home. I am of the mind that this should be the case nationwide.

[Suff]

As I said earlier, management failing the hospitals by not managing the load and priority at point of entry. i.e. the front desk.

But also difficult to identify for some things. After my second urology operation I had a catheter fitted and it was causing me "pain". I was in London working so no GP locally. I went into A&E and had to sit for hours because I was just "in pain" and they knew what was causing it.

However when they took my blood pressure and found it was 190 ish over 140 ish they became concerned that I was in a bit more "pain" than my system was willing to stand. Eventually they gave me very strong pain killers which resolved the issue in the short term.

But, still, better management at the front desk would help a lot.