Urgent action needed to address critical incident status

Commenting on the declared “critical incident” status across Cornwall’s health system and widening winter crisis across the UK, Health Select Committee member and local MP, Andrew George said:

“Resilience must be built into our NHS before it can plan any much-needed reorganisation. The problem is that our hospitals have been set to operate on a ‘just-in-time’ and excessively high bed occupancy level even during periods of relatively low pressure. As the President of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (Dr Adrian Boyle) has correctly (in my view) said, every acute hospital needs a ward of beds to take the pressure off the emergency department to address the problem of patient flow into our hospitals.

“It doesn’t help that the Health Sec. Wes Streeting, kicked reform of social care into the political long grass yesterday. If Prof. Darzi can produce an excellent report into the reforms needed in our NHS in just 9 weeks, then it really shouldn’t take 3 years to do the same for social care.

“In Cornwall, we not only need to heed Dr Boyle’s advice, but we must build and better use services available outside Treliske’s Emergency Department – from better use of and support for our local pharmacies and reinstating a 24/7 Urgent treatment facility at West Cornwall Hospital in Penzance. That service was closed overnight under the Conservatives over two and a half years ago, and has contributed to our local crisis.”