NHS campaign groups write to new Health secretary in desperate funding plea to ease bed blocking in Shropshire
Campaign groups have joined forces to write to the new Health secretary Steve Barclay to provide more funds to support the discharge of patients from hospital.
Shropshire Needs Ambulances and Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin Defend Our NHS wrote to the Minister 24 hours after it was confirmed that 22 out of 23 ambulances serving the county were in queues outside A&Es at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and Telford’s Princess Royal Hospital.
They say the system is in ‘gridlock’ and claim patients are being seriously harmed or are dying as a direct result.
The letter urges the Health Secretary to lobby the Chancellor for a reinstatement of the social care levy increase in National Insurance in order to release the gridlock in the emergency healthcare system.
"We believe the allocation of ring-fenced funding to enable safe and timely hospital discharge is the nearest thing we have to a ‘quick fix’ for our broken system," the letter says.
"We plead with you to allocate additional funding to Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin for social care or community services to support hospital discharge. This, more than any other intervention will break the gridlock restore ‘flow’ through the health and care system and save lives in our county."
The groups have welcomed the latest initiative taken by West Midlands Ambulance Service for patients to be ‘cohorted’ – to be cared for by paramedics working in a designated space within the hospital, to enable other paramedics to return to responding to emergency calls. But they say it is mitigation, not finding a solution to the crisis."
Gill George, chairwoman of Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin Defend Our NHS, said: ‘This is a stopgap measure.
"By itself, it doesn’t create extra space in overcrowded A&Es, it doesn’t magic into existence the hospital beds that don’t exist, and it doesn’t solve the catastrophic shortfall in social care that stops patients being discharged when they’re medically fit to go. And of course, paramedics do a tremendous job – but can’t just step into the shoes of Emergency Medicine Consultants."
Darren Childs, speaking for the Shropshire Needs Ambulances campaign, said ‘The real change we need to see is a reversal of the chronic underfunding and understaffing that have caused so much harm.
"There is also a ‘quick fix’ solution that can make a real difference in the here and now. We need targeted funding from central government to support hospital discharge.
"If we can get patients out of hospital when they’re ready, that frees up space on the wards, patients can move through A&E faster, and paramedics can hand over patients and get back to responding to emergency calls. The money was there – but it was stopped on March 31."
Oswestry resident and Shropshire Needs Ambulances supporter Sian Tasker, said: "The sooner we appreciate how important our adult care system is to the emergency care crisis, and give it proper funding, the more lives will be saved."
