Please see below our most recent press release. An archive of previous press releases is available by clicking here.
REACH reaction to the Keogh Report: Cost cutting or Service Improvement?
The training of A&E Doctors takes at least seven years and even longer for Consultants. So the current shortage across the country is the result of a failure to train and retain enough A&E Doctors and Consultants over many years, with no sign of enough being done to reverse this trend. This has coincided with increasing attendances at A&E departments, putting more pressure on staff. Recent reports have highlighted that this and better opportunities abroad has also led to a ‘brain-drain’ of A&E specialists. [the first paragraph of this press release has been revised slightly since initial publication]
REACH is disappointed that NHS England’s proposed solution to this, largely self-inflicted crisis, should be to downgrade permanently between 70 and 100 A&E departments to ‘Emergency Centres’. These may only have the status of Minor Injuries Units, staffed by Emergency Nurse Practitioners with no specialist A&E doctors on duty.
This is what has already happened overnight at Cheltenham General Hospital, which no longer accepts ‘blue-light ambulances’ overnight (except for cardiac cases) and has no A&E doctors on duty overnight.
REACH accepts that many patients who go to A&E could and should be treated elsewhere and welcomes NHS England’s proposals to improve other health care provision. These proposals should be implemented, before any further reconfiguration of A&E services is carried out, so the underlying demand for A&E services can be properly assessed.
The real long-term solution would be to train sufficient A&E doctors to meet patients’ genuine needs, while at the same time trying to improve the other NHS services. This should reduce the number of patients who use A&E to ‘plug other holes’ in the NHS. Planned properly it should be possible to reach a balance, where the number of A&E doctors and the number and distribution of A&E departments meets the needs of patients – including patients from Cheltenham and the Cotswolds.
The BBC’s report on NHS England’s latest proposals acknowledges that “This is likely to end up a controversial process because of the fear some hospitals could lose services.” Already patients groups up and down the country have opposed the closure and downgrading of A&E departments. It is certainly one of the fears which most opponents of the overnight downgrading of A&E at Cheltenham have expressed recently, including supporters of REACH.
REACH recognises that Gloucestershire Hospitals Trust may have had no alternative to the temporary overnight downgrading of A&E at Cheltenham, because of the current difficulty in recruiting sufficient A&E doctors and consultants, but believes the aim should be to restore a full 24/7 A&E service at Cheltenham General Hospital as soon as possible.
In the light of Sir Bruce Keogh’s report, REACH is afraid that, far from Emergency Services being restored, Cheltenham may face further downgrading, not just of A&E, but of other major surgical services currently provided in Cheltenham.
REACH is also concerned that one motive for downgrading A&E departments, both nationally and locally, is likely to be ‘cost cutting’, rather than providing ‘High Quality Care for All’.
All too often these days the NHS tries to cover up real cuts in services by claiming they are designed to deliver unsubstantiated ‘improvements for patients’ – so much so that it is hard to believe any claims of ‘service improvements’ when services are being downgraded or closed.
ENDS
For further information or comment contact Michael Ratcliffe on 01242 544549
Restore Emergency At Cheltenham Hospital 