News
A&E crisis puts strain on all services By Nick Triggle THE PRESSURE on emergency departments (EDs) is having major implications on how hospitals are run, NHS leaders are warning. During the last three months of 2014, EDs in England recorded their worst performance against the four-hour waiting time operational standard for a decade. Just 92.6% of patients were dealt with in four hours, below the 95% standard target. Waiting times are even worse in Wales and Northern Ireland. The start of this year saw a number of hospitals declaring ‘major incidents’ as they called in extra staff and cancelled elective operations to cope. Data for the last four weeks in December show there were nearly 5,500 cancelled operations, up 62% on the same period the year before, and more than 47,000 ‘bed days’ lost to delayed discharges, up 31%.
Honours THE RCN’s director in Wales is among those recognised in the Queen’s New Year Honours. Tina Donnelly, college director since 2004 and an army reservist with 203 (Welsh) Field Hospital for 23 years, was made a CBE for services to nursing, the armed forces and trade unionism. She ran intensive care units in Kosovo in 2000 and Iraq in 2003, and was commanding officer at Camp Bastion Hospital, Afghanistan, from October 2013 to January 2014. CHIEF NURSE at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust Eileen Sills was made a DBE. She has been chief nurse at the London trust since 2005 and director of patient experience since 2012. Last month she trained prime minister David Cameron and members of his cabinet to be ‘dementia friends’. 6
February 2015 | Volume 21 | Number 9
Trusts forced to redeploy staff and cancel elective operations to cope with high demand over winter But those figures tell only half the story. Nick Samuels, of NHS Providers, which represents hospital trusts, said the struggle in EDs has resulted in problems elsewhere in hospitals. ‘All sorts of logistical problems are created by these pressures,’ he said. ‘It is making running hospitals right across the country very difficult.’ Highest ever NHS England chief executive Simon Stevens conceded that the situation has been tough: ‘Our local health services are responding to far-and-away the highest ever number of ambulance calls, A&E attendances and emergency admissions in history.’
NHS faces exodus if unsocial hours payments are cut HALF OF all healthcare workers would leave the NHS if unsocial hours payments are scrapped, a joint union survey has found as a review into seven-day working takes place. Unions have polled staff on the issue after health minister Dan Poulter asked the NHS Pay Review Body (RB) to examine ways of delivering seven-day services in England ‘without increasing the existing spending’. RCN general secretary Peter Carter said the move could be a ‘precursor’ to stopping unsocial hours payments to staff. In evidence submitted to the RB for the review, the RCN highlighted a joint union survey of more than 24,000 NHS workers, of whom 40% were nurses, midwives and clinical support workers. It found that 50% would leave the health service if the extra pay was axed. Another survey by the RCN of 266 members who work shifts found that 92% relied on unsocial hours payments to make ends meet.
But he defended the steps that have been taken. ‘We have done everything that could reasonably be expected to plan carefully and expand services.’ But, with plenty of weeks left to go in winter, is there anything that can be done to relieve the problems? Some of the projects funded by the £700 million of extra winter funding also provide pointers. NHS England released a dossier of projects early last month. They include setting up seven-day pharmacy services, extending opening hours at some urgent care centres and using health service money to discharge frail elderly patients from acute care into care homes for short stints.
The college told the RB that ‘variations in outcomes and mortality outside core hours are unacceptable and must be addressed’ and that RCN members are committed to seven-day services. But its submission said that the focus of the review is a ‘way of dismantling the existing Agenda for Change agreement, particularly unsocial hours payments’.
Pocket mirrors will help nurses to spot pressure ulcers early A SENIOR nurse has secured funding for pocket mirrors to help staff identify pressure ulcers more effectively. Ward manager at Derriford Hospital Teresa Beer approached the newly formed innovation group at Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust after finding that mirrors could help detect compromised tissue in areas difficult to access, such as heels. Ms Beer explained to the group that heel ulcers represent about 12% of the incidence in the trust of pressure ulcers. NURSING MANAGEMENT
A&E crisis puts strain on all services By Nick Triggle THE PRESSURE on emergency departments (EDs) is having major implications on how hospitals are run, NHS leaders are warning. During the last three months of 2014, EDs in England recorded their worst performance against the four-hour waiting time operational standard for a decade. Just 92.6% of patients were dealt with in four hours, below the 95% standard target. Waiting times are even worse in Wales and Northern Ireland. The start of this year saw a number of hospitals declaring ‘major incidents’ as they called in extra staff and cancelled elective operations to cope. Data for the last four weeks in December show there were nearly 5,500 cancelled operations, up 62% on the same period the year before, and more than 47,000 ‘bed days’ lost to delayed discharges, up 31%.
Honours THE RCN’s director in Wales is among those recognised in the Queen’s New Year Honours. Tina Donnelly, college director since 2004 and an army reservist with 203 (Welsh) Field Hospital for 23 years, was made a CBE for services to nursing, the armed forces and trade unionism. She ran intensive care units in Kosovo in 2000 and Iraq in 2003, and was commanding officer at Camp Bastion Hospital, Afghanistan, from October 2013 to January 2014. CHIEF NURSE at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust Eileen Sills was made a DBE. She has been chief nurse at the London trust since 2005 and director of patient experience since 2012. Last month she trained prime minister David Cameron and members of his cabinet to be ‘dementia friends’. 6
February 2015 | Volume 21 | Number 9
Trusts forced to redeploy staff and cancel elective operations to cope with high demand over winter But those figures tell only half the story. Nick Samuels, of NHS Providers, which represents hospital trusts, said the struggle in EDs has resulted in problems elsewhere in hospitals. ‘All sorts of logistical problems are created by these pressures,’ he said. ‘It is making running hospitals right across the country very difficult.’ Highest ever NHS England chief executive Simon Stevens conceded that the situation has been tough: ‘Our local health services are responding to far-and-away the highest ever number of ambulance calls, A&E attendances and emergency admissions in history.’
NHS faces exodus if unsocial hours payments are cut HALF OF all healthcare workers would leave the NHS if unsocial hours payments are scrapped, a joint union survey has found as a review into seven-day working takes place. Unions have polled staff on the issue after health minister Dan Poulter asked the NHS Pay Review Body (RB) to examine ways of delivering seven-day services in England ‘without increasing the existing spending’. RCN general secretary Peter Carter said the move could be a ‘precursor’ to stopping unsocial hours payments to staff. In evidence submitted to the RB for the review, the RCN highlighted a joint union survey of more than 24,000 NHS workers, of whom 40% were nurses, midwives and clinical support workers. It found that 50% would leave the health service if the extra pay was axed. Another survey by the RCN of 266 members who work shifts found that 92% relied on unsocial hours payments to make ends meet.
But he defended the steps that have been taken. ‘We have done everything that could reasonably be expected to plan carefully and expand services.’ But, with plenty of weeks left to go in winter, is there anything that can be done to relieve the problems? Some of the projects funded by the £700 million of extra winter funding also provide pointers. NHS England released a dossier of projects early last month. They include setting up seven-day pharmacy services, extending opening hours at some urgent care centres and using health service money to discharge frail elderly patients from acute care into care homes for short stints.
The college told the RB that ‘variations in outcomes and mortality outside core hours are unacceptable and must be addressed’ and that RCN members are committed to seven-day services. But its submission said that the focus of the review is a ‘way of dismantling the existing Agenda for Change agreement, particularly unsocial hours payments’.
Pocket mirrors will help nurses to spot pressure ulcers early A SENIOR nurse has secured funding for pocket mirrors to help staff identify pressure ulcers more effectively. Ward manager at Derriford Hospital Teresa Beer approached the newly formed innovation group at Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust after finding that mirrors could help detect compromised tissue in areas difficult to access, such as heels. Ms Beer explained to the group that heel ulcers represent about 12% of the incidence in the trust of pressure ulcers. NURSING MANAGEMENT
