The current crisis in Worcestershire Hospital Trust where patients have been turned away and experiencing long delays (Disaster doctor sent to under-pressure Worcestershire Royal – BBC News) were all predicted back in 2000 by Allyson Pollock and colleagues in the report into Worcestershire and Kidderminster hospitals ‘Deficits before Patients’.
The report showed that the high costs of PFI could only be met by major bed and hospital closures including the local accident and emergency department in Kidderminster. They predicted that need would not be met as a result of bed and service closures and the bed crisis has continued to this day. It was the reason why Richard Taylor was elected twice as an independent candidate in Wyre Forest, because David Lock (the Labour candidate) did not oppose PFI or service closures.
Meanwhile the exorbitant costs of PFI in Hereford which also resulted in major bed closures has seeen the launch of a new plan to rebuild Hereford County Hosptial reorganisation. (Worcester News – Trust Board backs £40 million plan to “re-build” Hereford County Hospital.)
Interviewed by the BBC for the Today programme an unidentified senior clinical member of staff from the trust said:
“The problem at the moment is that the Worcestershire hospital is far too small. They can’t cope with the number of admissions or the number of walk-in patients that turn up in A&E.
“These things mean we have ended up with a crisis in A&E.
“They have now drawn little rectangles into the corridors to signify that is a corridor bed. It’s incredibly stressful. It becomes a Third World situation where only the very sickest patients can be treated properly.”
“These things mean we have ended up with a crisis in A&E.
“They have now drawn little rectangles into the corridors to signify that is a corridor bed. It’s incredibly stressful. It becomes a Third World situation where only the very sickest patients can be treated properly.”
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