Bed closure plan put on hold
Plans to cut up to 200 beds at hospitals in Gloucestershire were last night put on hold.
Health chiefs will hold off on the controversial cuts until politicians look at the plans in more depth.
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Hospital beds
The proposal to save millions of pounds by shedding 200 hospital beds from April sparked widespread concern.
But yesterday it was agreed to postpone the plan until the all-party Health, Community and Care Scrutiny committee of Gloucestershire County Council meets on March 9.
Committee chairman Andrew Gravells welcomed the move. He said: "I'm pleased that we now have this breathing space. This has been handled in an appalling way and leaves patients, staff and the public reeling at yet more bad news from the bosses at the Hospitals Trust.
"From No 10 Downing Street to rural Gloucestershire, people have been asking why is there all this secrecy, and what's really going on here?"
The bed cuts at both Cheltenham General and Gloucestershire Royal hospitals were described as "efficiency savings" by the Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
The Trust said the move would help it save up to £30 million in the next financial year.
The move would have meant 95 beds being closed at the Gloucester site within weeks, followed by an unknown number in Cheltenham.
The Trust defended the move by saying quicker discharges and full theatre and out-patient lists would make up the care. But now the chief executive of NHS Gloucestershire Jan Stubbings, writing in today's Echo, has said such changes need to be well planned and discussed.
She said: "These bed changes should be put on hold until all matters have been publicly scrutinised.
"It is clear that we all have the interests of local patients at heart and we have agreed that the implementation of these bed changes should be put on hold."
She added the changes needed to be openly discussed with staff, partners, MPs and patient and carer representatives.
Yesterday, the Echo reported how Cheltenham, Tewkesbury and Cotswold district councillors had expressed concerns over the cuts.
Gloucestershire County Council also yesterday voted unanimously for the bed cuts to be suspended.
Governors of the Hospitals Trust were last night meeting to discuss the plans.
Below, Citizen editor Ian Mean gives his view.
On Monday, this column called for the plan to close down 200 beds by the Gloucestershire Hospitals Foundation Trust to be put on hold immediately.
Our message to the trust’s chief executive, Dr Frank Harsent was blunt.
By last night, that had happened and we congratulate Gloucestershire NHS for listening. Not to us as a newspaper, particularly, but to the scores of our readers who made their opinions known, very forcibly, through our website thisisgloucestershire.co.uk,
Quite simply, this is a victory for common sense and for the NHS.
The hospitals trust’s decision to close the beds was made in almost total secrecy with key bosses in the national health service in the county knowing nothing about it beforehand.
Indeed, one hospital governor said the first they knew of the decision was when they read it on the front page of The Citizen last Thursday.
It was utterly disgraceful. Where is the accountability on such a sensitive issue?
The trust did not even tell the county’s important health scrutiny committee. The height of arrogance, or perhaps incompetence is a more appropriate word for how the hospitals trust completely messed up in its communications.
The chair of that committee, Councillor Andrew Gravells, perhaps sums up the chaos over this secrecy when he tells us: “Why is there all this secrecy surrounding the closure of 200 beds at two Gloucestershire hospitals, and what’s really going on there?
“This has been handled in an appalling way, and leaves patients, staff and the public reeling at yet more bad news from the bosses at the local hospitals trust.”
Dr Frank Harsent will now face Coun Gravells’ committee on March 9 where the impact of the planned closures will be discussed.
Andrew Gravells was not a VAT inspector for 27 years for nothing. Dr Harsent will need to have his wits about him to try and explain such a controversial plan being cloaked in secrecy – his examination will be forensic.
The National Health Service in Gloucestershire has taken great strides over the last few years, in how it communicates with its “customers”.
But the hospitals side of this great service of ours must be more joined-up in its thinking or it will lose the confidence of patients, staff and the public at large.
27 Comments
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by Anon, Glos
Sunday, February 28 2010, 10:25PM
“Paul Whiting,Hardwicke. Firstly I hope your wife is much better and secondly I am sorry to use her as an example. The respiratory ward is a very busy busy ward for obvious reasons and since closing the other respiratory ward a few monhs ago the ward is even more busy. Need I say any more? Another cost cutting excercise that has gone wrong!! And they want to close beds??
SAVE LIVES?????
Save MONEY more like”
by Simon Henly, Eastington
Sunday, February 28 2010, 9:20AM
“Bob, Charlton Kings. Mathematically you are probably correct. However I suspect Ann Jyna meant to refer to spending per-head which probably is in that ratio area.”
by sam, Gloucester
Saturday, February 27 2010, 5:58PM
“Can they not see what serious consequences closing these wards can do?? Look at what happened to Stafford Hospital-They made cuts to save money-now look at the serious problems they now have!!
God someone PLEASE WAKE UP and stop this madness!”
by Paul Whiting, hardwicke
Friday, February 26 2010, 4:35PM
“My wife was taken to hospital with breathing problems after a bad chest infection. After the wonderful care of the A & E staff she was taken to the ACU-A ward for assesment. She was then told that she would need to go to the respiritory ward for further assesments but this never happened. Why? you may ask. Apparently the ward was full. so much so that even without seeing a doctor over the weekend they wanted to discharge her, this was because they were short of beds in this ward. This being the case the proposed cuts in beds should be scrapped altogether.”
by anon, glos
Friday, February 26 2010, 11:55AM
“Isn't it all VERY suspicoius that all this beds closing/beds not closing secrecy and doubt is happening in an election year?? What spin is going to be put on this? Perhaps all part of a political plan? Harsent - where does your political affiliation lie? Time will tell. In the meantime the people on the front line will continue to do the best they can with the resources they have. All they want to do is their job, and they want to do it well, but the pressure from demand from poorly patients and lack of support from management makes it dangerous and a constant strain on staff. Health care is rapidly changing from a vocation to being on the chain-gang. That is if you manage to keep your job.”
by Bob, Charlton Kings
Friday, February 26 2010, 8:51AM
“In answer to Ann Jyna, the Trust's expenditure on nurses compared with other staff according to the Trust's published Board reports is about 1:2. The latest figures seem to show approximately;
Nursing 35%
Doctors 30%
Prof/Tech 16%
Clerical 11%
Ancillary 5%
Management 3%”
by Stuart, Longlevens
Friday, February 26 2010, 5:25AM
“This is a disaster for Gloucester. I have been admitted to GRH on several occasions over the past 5 years for the same problem. The staff there are great but are already under such pressure to clear beds that more often than not I am given a cocktail of tablets and told to 'go home and try them'. Cutting more beds will make it much worse. Cut the overpaid, under-performing managers and spend their obscene wages on more beds and more healthcare staff rather than pen pushers”
by Ann Jyna, Ward 2a
Thursday, February 25 2010, 11:32PM
“So Frank Harsent is not God after all then. He thought he was going to throw nurses out of work "at a stroke" (where have we heard that before?) whilst retaining his salary, along with all the Executive Directors, Non Executive Directors, Directors, Deputy Directors and Managers.
Rather than sack the frontline staff, why not take the opportunity to redress the balance between nursing and non nursing staff throughout the trust, which I believe is 1:5.
Or, Frank Harsent could increase the nurses car parking fee by ANOTHER 50p a day. Run a hospital trust? He couldn't run a bath.”
by Mama, Gloucestershrie Hospitals
Thursday, February 25 2010, 11:28PM
“Up until few years ago, this hosptial was one of the best in this region. We had surplus money and even the staff at one stage were given £100 bonus.
What happened suddenly? Did the government fund the hospital less cash than before? No. In fact there is an increase in funding from the cental gov next year.
This is all caused by nothing other than the magic word EUTOPIA. Managers who have no idea as how the hospital runs and senior professionals who are trying to add feathers to their caps selfishly hide Dr Harsent's eyes by saying untrue stories such as ¿UTOPIA is great, its working, we have avoided admissions etc etc¿
Dear Dr Harsent, hospital admissions are less, and discharges are more every day but has any one told you about the number of readmissions every day to emergency department and to the hospital. We call these failed discharges.
We are not dealing with products but we are dealing with human lives. As doctors, nurses, and health care professionals we do our best for our patients. Why can't you and your managerial staff do your job correctly?. If we are incompetent we are dismissed immediately, why should it be different for you and your managerial team.
The first person who should be dismissed immediately is the person who had the vision of EUTOPIA, and next every single one who are working for EUTOPIA. Once this happens the hospital reverts back to the original successful and happy hospital.
The morale among the staff are extremely low, staff are looking for jobs else where etc. The way this hospital goes, I am worried this could be another Stafford NHS trust.”
by anon, anon
Thursday, February 25 2010, 10:41PM
“What worries me is what other public service will be sacrificed in order to keep the wards open.”