(Picture from Wikipedia).Wishaw hospital, which is near Motherwell, is going through a torrid time just now. The Wishaw Press reported that the hospital racked up record waiting times for patients in the A&E unit, that they had had to divert patients on 83 occasions during 2006 and that one patient was seen by a doctor in a cupboard two weeks ago. In reply, NHS Lanarkshire said that it was a very modern cupboard fit for the 21st century, that the patient had now been discharged from the cupboard and that contrary to scurrilous rumours, there had not been a skeleton in it.
Seriously though, bed numbers (and cupboards) are declining fast. Across Lanarkshire, we lost 300 acute beds after the new builds at Hairmyres and Wishaw, and these hospitals have been struggling to cope ever since they opened. According to the Unison report 'The PFI Experience' Hairmyres has been running at 99% capacity ever since it opened. A hospital is meant to run at 85% daily, to avoid cross infection and to enable effective turnaround of beds. So just what is happening? Why don't we have beds? Yep folks, it's good old PFI again.
Because it is so expensive to build under PFI, the hospitals tend to get built smaller. This means they can't fit as many beds into them, so you get a reduction in bed numbers. It also impacts on the number of operations that you can do. If you do an operation on someone, you need a bed to put them in. If you don't have a bed, you can't do the operation. If you can't do the operation, the waiting list grows. And so on.
Jean Turner has been flagging up this issue in the Scottish Parliament. For those who want a wee look at the most recent debate it's at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/business/officalReports?meetingsParliament/or-06/sor1116-02htm#Col29484 . The debate was on the 16th November (and yes, I must learn how to do a link on this site.)
But the big question in Lanarkshire is; what happens when Monklands A&E shuts? How are we all going to cope? Better get started on kitting out those cupboards..
Seriously though, bed numbers (and cupboards) are declining fast. Across Lanarkshire, we lost 300 acute beds after the new builds at Hairmyres and Wishaw, and these hospitals have been struggling to cope ever since they opened. According to the Unison report 'The PFI Experience' Hairmyres has been running at 99% capacity ever since it opened. A hospital is meant to run at 85% daily, to avoid cross infection and to enable effective turnaround of beds. So just what is happening? Why don't we have beds? Yep folks, it's good old PFI again.
Because it is so expensive to build under PFI, the hospitals tend to get built smaller. This means they can't fit as many beds into them, so you get a reduction in bed numbers. It also impacts on the number of operations that you can do. If you do an operation on someone, you need a bed to put them in. If you don't have a bed, you can't do the operation. If you can't do the operation, the waiting list grows. And so on.
Jean Turner has been flagging up this issue in the Scottish Parliament. For those who want a wee look at the most recent debate it's at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/business/officalReports?meetingsParliament/or-06/sor1116-02htm#Col29484 . The debate was on the 16th November (and yes, I must learn how to do a link on this site.)
But the big question in Lanarkshire is; what happens when Monklands A&E shuts? How are we all going to cope? Better get started on kitting out those cupboards..
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