23 October - Preparing for a healthy Winter
The Adults’ Scrutiny meeting held a week ago was Chaired by Councillor Janice
Ward-Wilson who introduced herself and explained the
purpose of the meeting in a manner that more experienced Chairmen
would do well to emulate. At last a Chair that considers the inexpert audience
who may know nothing of acronyms.
The subject was ‘Winter Resilience Planning’.
Bexley is served by three hospitals, Greenwich, Woolwich
and Darenth Valley which had not bothered to send a representative to the
meeting. There are not enough District Nurses in and around Bexley to meet a rising demand - so
another review has been called for. Bed capacity is always inadequate as is ED
capacity (so much for no acronyms) and “exacerbated in Winter”. The cyber attack
on primary care services continues to be “a challenge”.
Councillor Geraldene Lucia-Hennis representing Crayford the
nearest ward to the Darenth Valley hospital was disappointed by their absence. The
hospital had taken on another 60,000 potential patients from Ebbsfleet and
beyond but has not been able to handle what it had during the Summer let alone
even more in Winter. However the hospital at a meeting held 24 hours before the
Scrutiny meeting was optimistic that everything will be OK despite the average
A&E wait being 14 hours.
Councillor L-H was concerned that Darenth Valley would “not be able to cope at all”.
The medical representative said that all three local hospitals have already seen
Winter pressure put them at “high risk”.
Councillor Lisa Moore (Conservative, Longlands)
said “bed occupancy runs just a
smidgen under 100% in Winter. What is the target and what stops you achieving
it?” The answer was that “the capacity target nationally is eighty something”.
There were several references to “virtual wards” but despite the Chairman’s
initial plea about jargon, no explanation was forthcoming.
Councillor Peter Craske asked the Cabinet Member if the
hospitals were prepared for the likely influx of admissions resulting from the
abolition of the Winter Fuel Allowance. Councillor Seymour said about 34,000
Bexley residents will be deprived of the allowance and if they cannot heat their
homes there will be extra demand on hospitals but he is looking at mitigation.
There should be an announcement at the next Full Council meeting.
Councillor Wendy Perfect (Labour, Northumberland Heath) was brave enough to admit that she didn’t know what a
virtual ward was. It turns out it is acute care patients stuck at home in their
own bed with a telephone by its side. She told a story of her own experience at
Darenth Valley Hospital where she gave up and went to Urgent Care in Erith.
Councillor Perfect then said the NHS had undergone sustained underfunding for
the past 14 years having presumably not noticed that more money has been put
into the NHS every single year. £131 billion in 2010 and £185 billion last year.
Councillor Seymour said that expenditure was at unprecedented levels and greater
than the entire GDP of Greece but accepted that there is waste and poor procurement practices.
And population growth of course.
There was then a short pause to allow for the Labour Councillors’ contribution to the debate. Jeering.
Councillor Peter Reader (Conservative, West Heath) said the Agenda referred to DOCCLA. What
is it? Answer: A tool used to monitor Virtual Beds and the frail elderly don’t like it.
Note: On a personal note I have seen the inside of Queen
Elizabeth Hospital recently more often than I would like but cannot find
anything which merits criticism. If you can grab the attention of the NHS they
aren’t always too bad. I have not seen a GP for very nearly five years. No
longer sure how one goes about doing so.