The Isle of Wight NHS Trust has said it is facing so much pressure it has had to go back to the drawing board for its winter plan.
Over the summer, the trust, based at St Mary’s Hospital in Newport, declared 2 critical incidents as its health services were under significant and sustained operational pressures.
The main problem facing the health service is a blockage of patients causing congestion throughout the hospital.
At 1 end, there are no care places in the community which leads to an average of 67 beds a day at St Mary’s filled with patients who could be discharged. Those beds are needed by people who come into the emergency department seeking urgent treatment, who either need to be admitted to the hospital or face long waits for care.
Speaking at the Isle of Wight NHS Trust Board on Thursday, chief operating officer at the trust, Joe Smyth, said he was very concerned about winter as pressures had not changed, they were getting worse every month.
He said the trust had had a plan for an increase in admissions between 3-5% going into winter however, the actual figure was around 13-15%. The trust would not manage in winter if it stuck to its original plan, he said.
The winter plan was being developed though, Mr Smyth said, and he hoped it would be completed in the next month. To help fill the care gap currently on the Island, Mr Smyth said carers were being brought in from the mainland but also patients were being sent off the Island for care.
The care shortfall, he said, was a real challenge; one he did not see the trust had a comprehensive plan to address.
Dr Lesley Stevens, director of community, said the trust was trying to avoid increased patient admission by caring for people earlier in their own homes and before the social support from families and friends falls away.
The Trust was also looking at increasing domiciliary care provision by extending its day hub provision — currently based in Freshwater — with new hubs in the Central and East Wight areas.
We get this same old BS from useless overpaid managers year after year from this dump. If the managers can’t manage then why not save money by getting someone in on £20k a year? There’s no point paying three figure salaries when two figure salaries can get the same useless results.
I see what you mean, but 10+ years of under funding and under resourcing can’t be placed on over paid manager’s. Over paid politicians did that!
When any organisation perpetually complains that the reason they cannot function is a lack of funding then the model is broken.The ex director of NICE has said on financial predictions by 2070 the NHS will consume all of the national budget.
When has anyone ever heard the NHS say that due to modern working practices they are saving money and have become more efficent. They are still paying countless people to type letters for patients appointments, Doctors are still writing reams of notes when a tablet would do it in half the time, Is the NHS about treating patients or protecting jobs.
the NHS are always whining – there were TV headlines in the 1980’s that said NHS in crisis and then proceeded to say exactly the same things as now. Since the 1980’s the NHS has had significant funding increases yet they still claim they are skint – why – because they waste it on overpaid diversity managers and pointless surgeries, such as gender reassignment, lipo etc.
In my experience, those doing the hands on deserve all the praise, take one step above and that’s where the big pay=poor performance starts, pay the nurses/carers more, the managers much less, trim off all the goodies, and only get those genuinely interested in making a positive difference on board.
The underlying problem is the number of people on the Island for the size of the NHS services we have.
Why not have community hospitals which could have dealt with type of problem. Oh, yes we closed those and sold off the land for a quick profit.
I thought St Mary’s had both hands tied behind their back.
Buck up and get on with what you are paid to do, less talk more action is the answer.
Always complaining, most serious cases are dealt with by Southampton and Portsmouth.
St Mary’s on the Island have it easy.
Either too hot or too cold, too windy, too stuffy, too wet, too humid… or is it that St Mary’s isn’t actually fit for purpose.
The NHS. We are told is the envy of the world. An envy which is not copied in any other nation on earth. By 2025 the NHS will suck 45p in every £1 of Govt spending with no improvement and we witness excess deaths whilst they were asleep at the wheel during Covid. An absolute scandal. Whitty and Valance should hold their heads in shame.
if people stop calling ambo for petty little things and make there own ways in and stop coming into hospital for petty things treat at home nhs wouldnt be so bad
If you shut RYDE Hospital, FRANK James Hospital, SHANKLIN Hospital and the Private Hospital,
Demolish Polars etc what is it that you do not get.
GPs are no longer easily accessable, especially if you are not computer savy, so the sick get sicker and end up in hospital with nobody to care for them on discharge.
I say to those well paid individuals who decide these thing ….YOU will get old and you will get sick one day.
You will reap what you sow.