A&E problems at York hospital – public meeting hears facts

“Not a funding issue”

The health committee last night received an update on problems at A&E. It can be heard on the video of the meeting after 41 minutes

There was a 6% overall increase in patient presentations over recent weeks

Problems were prompted by an 80% increase in viral conditions with increased risks of pneumonia particularly in elderly people.

The issue was not a funding problem.

The hospital says that it is impossible to provide more beds as there are not enough doctors and nurses to staff additional wards.

The hospital is looking to recruit overseas to fill vacancies.

The 111 service locally is provided by ambulance service in York and is performing well.

Bed blocking (delayed discharges) in not a major factor in the A&E crisis in York. There are vacant spaces in some local elderly person’s homes. There are staffing shortages in this sector as well.

A trades union representative suggested “upskilling” paramedics to deal with more potential patients at the scene on an incident (although this seemed somewhat irrelevant given the advice provided on the causes of the increased demand)

Councillors rightly expressed concern that any increase in the City’s population as a result of Labours “Big City” Local Plan population growth proposals could only exacerbate the pressures on the hospital.

The issue was considered at yesterdays meeting at the request of Nick Love , the City’s prospective Liberal Democrat MP.

A meeting of the Health and Wellbeing Board takes place on 21^st January. It is also open to the public

York’s Annual Public Health Report Published

City of York Council has published the first chapter of its Director of Public Health annual report for 2015.

The council’s Director of Public Health is legally required to produce an annual report on the health of the local population.

This year’s report will be produced in monthly chapters that will highlight key health issues to the city’s residents. Each chapter will provide information on how to improve your health and that of your friends and families.
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14th January meeting to receive a report on problems at York A&E

Following our story this morning prospective York MP Nick Love wrote to the new (Conservative) Chair of the Council’s Health Scrutiny Board suggesting that an urgent item be added to the agenda.

He wanted the meeting to hear first hand about the problems, the causes and the potential remedies.

Credit where it is due, Cllr Paul Doughty acted promptly and has given an assurance that a hospital representative will attend the meeting.

The meeting takes place on Wednesday, 14th January, 2015 starting at 5.30 pm. The venue is the George Hudson Board Room – 1st Floor West Offices (F045). It is open to the public and residents can register to speak.

Nick, in his Email to Cllr Doughty, said,

“Given the ongoing and very public crisis covered extensively in the media regarding A&E at York Hospital, would you please consider putting the matter on the Agenda for the forthcoming Health Scrutiny Committee on 14^th January.

I believe the public interest would be well served by an update on the current situation, including current figures on the “care in community” places available to York Hospital – a lack of which may be exacerbating the problems at York Hospital. As you know – spare beds to enable admissions are created when patients are discharged and care in community places significantly help towards this situation – of which the City of York Council bears partial responsibility.

It would help if we could know if the City of York Council is meeting its obligations and targets in this respect – so as to be of the most help possible to York Hospital in this time of unprecedented pressure on their services, including A&E.

Hopefully you could also ensure that a representative from the hospital attends the meeting (I’m sure they would welcome the opportunity) and that they publish a factsheet indicating relative demand levels, comparing this and previous years, together with a root cause analysis of the reasons for the A&E targets not being met.”

York Council set to ignore problems in York hospital A&E department?

Residents and patients, expecting an update on problems at the York Hospital A&E department, will be disappointed when they read the agenda for the Heath Scrutiny committee taking place on 14^th January.

With the York hospital performing worse than others in the region in meeting A&E targets recently, residents might have expected the committee – which now has responsibility for providing oversight of NHS issues in the City – to have received an update on the latest position.

It seems that this will not be the case.

This is all the more surprising as among the causes identified nationally for the A&E problems are lack of beds.

In turn this is blamed on lack of care in the community places for patients to move to when they can be released from hospital. The York Council bears part of the responsibility for providing such care places.

One report does reveal that the Council is still overspending its Adult Social Care budgets by over £1 million. In the main this is put down to delays in implementing the new care homes project. The Lowfields Care village – as has been reported on many occasions – is running 3 years behind schedule.

The report says, “the performance for delayed transfers of care from hospital is showing a small increase in line with the national trend”

Another report comments on the financial position of the York hospital revealing a surplus of £100,000 in 2013/14 (down on the budget expectation which was £2.4 million).

The hospitals total budget is around £480 million. The hospital is, however, required to make efficiency savings as revealed in its strategic plan.

Another part of the NHS the Vale of York Clinical Commissioning Group delivered a £2.12 million surplus last year.

Hopefully the chair of this scrutiny committee will respond to public concerns and ensure that an urgent item is added to the committee agenda.

This will allow an update to be given on the current position at the hospital, the reasons for any failures together with proposals which ensure that standards are achieved in the future.

York hospitals crisis prompts call for probe as……..

…….Liberal Democrats publish plan to invest an extra £8 billion a year in NHS

Media reports are suggesting that unprecedented numbers of people have visiting A & E departments at the York and Scarborough hospitals over the last 3 weeks, leading to unacceptable delays in treatment.

The hospital has not published any figures for patient numbers and waiting times recently and the Council’s Cabinet member with responsibility for “Health” has offered no comment.

Responsibility for scrutinising the performance of the health service in York now also rests with the York Council but again no statements have been issued and no special meetings scheduled.

Some are claiming that “bed blocking” – discharges from hospitals delayed through lack of spaces in nursing homes – is partly responsible for the crisis.

The hospital management are right to ask people not to misuse A & E services when other options may address their issues.

But more facts about relative demand levels, together with the publication of up to date performance statistics, would help residents understand the problem rather more than they do now.

The latest Care Quality performance monitoring stats can be downloaded by clicking here (December 2014)

Liberal Democrats to increase NHS funding by £8bn by 2020

Liberal Democrats have today (Tuesday 6 January) set out plans to safeguard the NHS for the future.

NHS funding will increased by at least £8bn per year in real terms by 2020.

The Liberal Democrats are the first party to present a plan to meet the financial needs of the NHS as set out by Simon Stevens, the Chief Executive of NHS England in his Five Year Forward View.

To achieve this boost in funding by 2020/21, Liberal Democrats will do three things:
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York Labour to go for London based candidate?

It looks like Hugh Bayley’s replacement, as a Labour candidate to be the City’s MP, will be a Trades Union official who is based in London.

Speculation had mounted, that an outsider would be parachuted into the York Central constituency, when Labour decided to impose an “all woman” shortlist on its members.

Amongst those vying for support is understood to be a senior UNITE trades union official with a specialist interest in the health services.

Labour is heavily dependant on Unions like UNITE for its funding.

The Tories have already selected a London based man to be their candidate.

This leaves LibDem Nick Love @NickLovesYork as the only York resident selected as a candidate for the contest by any of the major parties.

Stop the rot: new campaign highlights how cigarettes ‘rot’ the body from the inside

City of York Council is backing a powerful new campaign that has been launched this week to highlight how smoking damages the body and causes a slow and steady decline in a process akin to rotting.

It follows a new expert review that highlights the multiple impacts that toxic ingredients in cigarettes can have on your body.

Whilst many smokers know that smoking causes cancer and harms the lungs and heart, the new report highlights how it also damages:

Bones and muscles – Smoking causes progressive harm to the musculoskeletal system, and has a negative impact on bone mineral density. Harms include:
25% increased risk of any fracture and a 40% increase in the risk of hip fractures among men
Slower healing after injury
Increased risk of back and neck pain, leading to a 79% increase in chronic back pain and a 114% increase in disabling lower back pain
Significant cause of rheumatoid arthritis and can reduce the impact of treatment
Brain – Current smokers are 53% more likely to develop cognitive impairment than non-smokers and 59% more likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease
Teeth – Smoking increases the likelihood of tooth loss and decay
Eyes – Smoking damages sight by increasing the risk of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) by 78%-358% and increasing the risk of age-related cataracts

With New Year’s resolutions approaching and two thirds of smokers saying they want to quit, new adverts are being used to graphically illustrate the degeneration that smoking causes.
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Please give to homeless charities – all year round!

The Salvation Army, Arc Light and other homeless hostels have been flooded with offers to donate food, Christmas meals and presents which will go to help those who are homeless this Christmas.

The generosity of people towards York’s homeless is truly heart-warming. The Salvation Army, Arc Light and other homeless hostels have been flooded with offers to donate food, Christmas meals and presents which will go to help those who are homeless this Christmas. Various social networking sites are encouraging people to come to York to hand out food on Christmas Day but what’s really needed and is most valued is help all year round.

Donations can be taken to Salvation Army, York Citadel or call 01904 545096 or to York Foodbank who welcome non perishable foods and toiletries, on 01904 781983 or visit http://york.foodbank.org.uk/
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IVF treatment re-introduced in York

In Vitro Fertilisation services in the Vale of York

On Thursday 4 December 2104, NHS Vale of York Clinical Commissioning Group’s (CCG) Governing Body formally confirmed the go ahead for plans to provide IVF to couples in the Vale of York. To read more about the CCG’s Governing Body’s decision click here.

The Governing Body agreed to implement a policy of immediate access to one cycle of IVF for individuals that meet the following criteria.
•Female age: 23 – 39 years old (at the time of treatment);
•Female BMI: 19 to 29 female for six months prior to a referral;
•Smoking status: Non-smoking couple for six months prior to a referral;
•Existing children: To not have living or adopted children;
•Relationship: To be in a stable relationship for at least two years;
•Other criteria:
•To have had regular unprotected intercourse (attempts to conceive) for at least two years prior to referral within the same stable relationship;
•Based upon previous treatment history.

The policy reflects the latest guidelines from the National Institute for Clinical Excellence.

Careful consideration will be given to previously eligible couples currently seeking IVF services. To ensure this process is fair and as effective as possible, the CCG is working closely with local Assisted Conception Units to develop a pathway into services.

Are there enough chemists in York?

Consultation on Draft Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment (PNA)

Any community representative will tell you that the things that people value most are accessible essential services. These include Post Offices, a bus stop, health services and Chemists.

The Council has now launched a consultation on the availability of Chemist (Pharmaceutical) services in York

Their announcement reads:

Every Health and Wellbeing Board in England has a statutory responsibility to publish and keep up-to-date a statement of the needs for pharmaceutical services for the population in its area, referred to as a Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment (PNA).

The PNA is used to inform decisions about where to site pharmacies (some people call them chemists), opening hours and what services are provided. Safe and effective use of medicines is the most common healthcare intervention; with nearly 80 per cent of adults visiting a pharmacy for a health-related reason at least once a year.

The York Health and Wellbeing Board is in the process of producing a new PNA. People’s views on the availability, suitability and quality of pharmaceutical services are an important part of understanding service needs and requirements.

A copy of the Draft Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment can be found here (please note the maps have been uploaded as separate documents and are listed below)

Appendix 5 – Pharmacy, dispensing GP practice and non-dispensing GP practice locations

Appendix 6 – Non – Controlled locality boundaries (2 maps) –Map 1 and Map 2

The consultation period runs from 25th November 2014 to 26th January 2015 and the consultation survey can be accessed here.

Or email to healthandwellbeing@york.gov.uk

If on paper please post to: Public Health, City of York Council, West Offices, Station Rise, York YO1 6GA

Please let us know your views.

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