The Isle of Wight’s only hospital is starting to analyse why patients are unable to leave, despite being well enough.
The Isle of Wight NHS Trust has had to scale back some services to create increased capacity as it faces continued pressure on bed space.
A 20% increase in the number of over 80s attending the emergency department in December was noted, compared to that of 2021.
It announced its latest critical incident at the start of December and that is still in force.
Darren Cattell, the trust’s chief executive, apologised at its board meeting on Thursday, saying they were not providing the services they would wish to and staff resilience was being tested.
Chief operating officer, Joe Smyth, said they did not understand what was causing the increase in demand, especially as more money had been put into adult social care while community schemes were taking a significant number of patients. He said it was not having the desired effect as people were still coming into the hospital, staying too long and the hospital had in effect become too small to manage the demand.
Mr Smyth said they need to understand what is stopping the flow as there seemed to be some beds available in community care settings they could never access. A deadline for the analysis has been set for the end of the month so the Trust can start to answer the questions and what it is doing and when it can improve.
Mr Cattell said it would allow the trust a sharp focus to enable them to make a difference.
Perhaps the increased numbers of homes being built, covid causing people to move from urban to rural areas and god’s waiting room expanding (The life expectancy of a female born in England in 2022 is 83 years, an increase of 21 years since the birth of the late Queen) might be three plausible reasons?
Take note Island Councillors. Read this and ‘suck it up’ before you go giving more permission to build even more houses. OUR ONLY HOSPITAL CAN’T COPE.
Absolutely right, but it not just here it is all over the UK. This country is wrong on so many levels. Many wrong decisions were made by Governments years ago and it has all come home to roost now.
Still MANY wrong decisions being made to this day by the totally incompetent Tory Government. They have many issues to sort out but are doing nothing. They are a total disgrace and need ousting from 10 Downing Street.
The isle of wight council is in a catch 22 situation, one of the main sources of revenue is business taxes, but with the move away from high street shopping primarily because the council charges you to park and shop the only other secure way of raising revenue is by allowing the building of houses and lots of them and charging council tax.
As the medical practice becomes better and we live longer, this is bound to happen. We all have to die eventually.
Are they really so thick? Not enough community carers, care placements or money for care packages available to offer the support patients need to be discharged. I worked this out for free in less than 5 minutes sitting in my armchair. Imagine what else I could do if I got paid a huge salary like Joe Smyth!
Has no-one ever thought about what was available on the NHS in 1947,when it was conceived? Surgery if you had a broken bone in a limb,appendicitis, tonsillectomy. No organ transplants, chemotherapy, sex-change operations, cosmetic surgery et al. No blood pressure medication, heart disease medication, anxiety or depression medication. All of these medical advances are wonderful, but come at an enormous expense. The whole organisation needs a root and branch overhaul. The current system isn’t working, and never will again, until it’s totally overhauled.
I really hope all these 80 something’s had all their COVID boosters and the Flu jab? Yes I know many people don’t agree with injections and they say “it doesn’t stop you getting it” but one thing for sure, whatever you get, the symptoms won’t be nowhere near as severe.
Why doesn’t he council start building new care homes… That empty prison could house quite a few.. !! Look at all the empty council owned properties, laying empty… why do they not make use of them.. ?/
Guess soon they will be installing Bunk beds in the wards…
May i share some info that i have learned first hand, its important. My mum was in a lovely care home for couple of years but fell and broke her hip, she had dementia and diabetes. she went to St Marys and had a partial hip replacement, successful. Unfortunately she developed sepsis. And her Diabetes got worse. she was in hospital for a few months. When she was deemed fit for release, her care home would not accept her back as she needed nursing care. The hospital could not find a home with that level of care for some time. there are about 60 care homes and only 12 nursing homes, so its so difficult to free up beds. This must be common across the country,
she was eventually placed in a nursing home after a long wait. Places are rare.