Charities urge government over A&E role

By The Press Association13th January 2015News EnglandAccident and Emergency, Charities, News England, NHS

Some of Britain’s leading charities will urge the Government to let them make a “radical intervention” at accident and emergency departments in a bid to relieve crippling pressure on doctors and nurses.

Charities, including the Red Cross, Age UK and the Royal Voluntary Service, want to see volunteers and staff stationed in struggling hospitals to help feed and hydrate vulnerable patients, prevent unnecessary hospital admissions of frail, elderly people and help arrange follow-up care.

Cabinet secretary and head of the civil service Sir Jeremy Heywood will meet chief executives of the charities tomorrow to hear how their “vital, strategic” services are being wasted at a time when the NHS is overwhelmed by unprecedented hospital admissions.

While trained volunteers already help out at some hospitals, the Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations (ACEVO), which is leading the proposal, will urge the Government to commission a major national expansion of the services.

Sir Stephen Bubb, chief executive of ACEVO, said: “The NHS needs an innovative and radical intervention otherwise this current situation at A&Es and hospitals is going to carry on and that is very damaging.

“It’s been needed for a number of years, frankly. We’ve known for a long time that frail, elderly patients are being kept in hospital for a long time despite not having medical conditions.

“I think the charity sector could make a really important strategic intervention. What I am after is a major expansion of the successful work these charities already do.

“This isn’t about bailing out the NHS or the NHS not coping, but an effective way of letting us do the job we can do in social care and freeing up medical staff so they can do their job.

“This is in no way a substitute for medical professionals, but a way of supporting elderly and frail people back in to their homes quickly and safely instead of remaining in expensive hospital beds.”

Some of the services that trained staff could provide include making transport arrangement for elderly people leaving hospital, making visits to their home to prevent readmissions, providing company for vulnerable patients to aid their recovery and pointing patients to more suitable services.

In October, so-called “bed-blocking” by predominately older patients who are kept on hospital wards unnecessarily because of hold-ups in transferring them to other care services, cost an estimated £25 million.

A&E units had one their busiest weeks on record in the week ending January 4, when they failed to meet their waiting time target of seeing 95% of patients within a four hour period, instead managing 86.7% of the 407,239 patients who attended.

Dr Sarah Pinto-Duschinsky, director of operations and delivery for NHS England, said the NHS continues to face “unprecedented pressures on its frontline services” which will continue for the next few weeks.

Former coalition minister Norman Baker also claimed Brighton’s Royal Sussex County Hospital is fiddling its A&E figures by refusing to accept ambulances until they are confident they can deal with patients within the four-hour target.

A Department of Health spokesman said: “We know the NHS is busier than ever before, which is why we’ve given a record £700m this winter for 700 more doctors, 4,500 more nurses and 5,000 more beds.

“As happens every year, we continue to look at all the options to help cope with increased pressure including looking at the important role of charities and the independent sector.”