Analysis
Next steps The Keogh report offers a long-term vision for the health service that is expected to be implemented within five years. The review board will study the cost and workforce implications before publishing a progress report in spring 2014. It is clear that there are challenges ahead, with the proposal to create what has been dubbed a ‘two-tier’ ED system expected to be the most problematic. King’s Fund senior fellow Nigel Edwards says: ‘While the solutions proposed in the report are the right ones, some of them will be a hard sell to politicians and the public. They will also be difficult to implement given people’s attachment to the A&E brand and resistance to changing local services.’ Unison head of health Christina McAnea says: ‘The proposed shake up fails to address the fundamental problem: a basic lack of funding.’ See also opinion, page 12 Nick Triggle is a freelance writer
Find out more Monitor’s review of walk-in centres can be accessed at tinyurl.com/kz8tgav NHS England’s report, Transforming Urgent and Emergency Care Services in England, can be accessed at tinyurl.com/prx9qtg References Monitor (2013) Walk-In Centre Review: Preliminary Report. tinyurl.com/lq2laos (Last accessed: November 21 2013.)
EMERGENCY NURSE
Volunteers keep communicating in 60 years of bad weather conditions Alamy
These changes involve doctors taking on a co-ordinating role for health and social care for one million of the frailest patients, who make up about 2 per cent of the adult population. In return, doctors will have less pay-related paperwork to do. The report highlights other ways that GP time can be freed up. For example, about one fifth of the 340 million GP consultations carried out each year could be dealt with through self-care or support from community pharmacists, many of whom offer advice on minor illnesses and medication, and work 100 hours a week. District nurses also have an important role in keeping people well, it adds.
This year, the Radio Amateurs’ Emergency Network celebrates its sixth decade of service. Stephanie Jones-Berry reports AS THE UK braces itself for the next onset of cold weather this winter, a little-known group of communications volunteers is preparing to help keep emergency care services running. The Radio Amateurs’ Emergency Network (RAYNET), which celebrated its 60th anniversary last month, supports emergency responders when communication networks fail or become overloaded. It helped to co-ordinate disaster responses, including for the Lockerbie air crash, in 1988, and for several major floods. In addition, volunteers driving the network’s radio-equipped 4x4 vehicles take front line nurses to hospitals during periods of bad weather. ‘Every winter for the last few years, we have been called out to assist in getting nursing staff into hospitals,’ says volunteer Daryl Willcox, a member of the group in Eastbourne and Wealden, East Sussex. ‘In a few situations, we even moved people to and from hospital.’ According to chair of RAYNET Cathy Clark, a retired teacher from Oxfordshire, the network’s 2,000 volunteers are mostly licensed radio amateurs, and include ambulance workers and other healthcare professionals. ‘We have good contacts with our emergency planning officers, who often call us in,’ she says. ‘If there is a potential weather problem, like snow or floods, volunteers are put on standby and called out when necessary.’
RAYNET services are called on when hospital or ambulance staff experience communication problems, or in major incidents where emergency services are stretched. During the 2007 Gloucestershire floods, for example, the local telephone system became overloaded and the network established reliable radio-communication centres. Search teams In bad weather RAYNET’s members often set up ‘snow desks’ to provide ambulance and police services with information on road conditions by radio. And, if hospital or ambulance service control rooms fail, RAYNET can provide back‑up communications. ‘At the Lockerbie air disaster, volunteers went out with the search teams and set up portable installations to make radio communications possible,’ Ms Clark recalls. ‘Up to 200 people a day operated for ten days until recovery of the 270 dead was complete.’ The network was formed in 1953, in the aftermath of major east-coast storms and floods that led to the deaths of more than 300 people. Telephones and coastal radio stations had been put out of action, but a group of radio amateurs defied licensing regulations to answer distress calls and alert rescue services. When the disaster was over, they formed RAYNET. Ms Clark says that, despite advances in communications technology, the network is needed more than ever. ‘With our current unpredictable climate and the high risk of failure of modern communication networks, RAYNET volunteers can make a crucial difference,’ she explains. Mr Willcox urges emergency nurses to consider joining the network because they are particularly good at dealing with the unexpected. ‘Many of our local groups can advise on training and the basic licence only takes a weekend to complete,’ he says. Stephanie Jones-Berry is a freelance writer
Find out more More information on RAYNET is available at www.raynet-uk.net December 2013 | Volume 21 | Number 8
Downloaded from RCNi.com by ${individualUser.displayName} on Nov 27, 2015. For personal use only. No other uses without permission. Copyright © 2015 RCNi Ltd. All rights reserved.
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Next steps The Keogh report offers a long-term vision for the health service that is expected to be implemented within five years. The review board will study the cost and workforce implications before publishing a progress report in spring 2014. It is clear that there are challenges ahead, with the proposal to create what has been dubbed a ‘two-tier’ ED system expected to be the most problematic. King’s Fund senior fellow Nigel Edwards says: ‘While the solutions proposed in the report are the right ones, some of them will be a hard sell to politicians and the public. They will also be difficult to implement given people’s attachment to the A&E brand and resistance to changing local services.’ Unison head of health Christina McAnea says: ‘The proposed shake up fails to address the fundamental problem: a basic lack of funding.’ See also opinion, page 12 Nick Triggle is a freelance writer
Find out more Monitor’s review of walk-in centres can be accessed at tinyurl.com/kz8tgav NHS England’s report, Transforming Urgent and Emergency Care Services in England, can be accessed at tinyurl.com/prx9qtg References Monitor (2013) Walk-In Centre Review: Preliminary Report. tinyurl.com/lq2laos (Last accessed: November 21 2013.)
EMERGENCY NURSE
Volunteers keep communicating in 60 years of bad weather conditions Alamy
These changes involve doctors taking on a co-ordinating role for health and social care for one million of the frailest patients, who make up about 2 per cent of the adult population. In return, doctors will have less pay-related paperwork to do. The report highlights other ways that GP time can be freed up. For example, about one fifth of the 340 million GP consultations carried out each year could be dealt with through self-care or support from community pharmacists, many of whom offer advice on minor illnesses and medication, and work 100 hours a week. District nurses also have an important role in keeping people well, it adds.
This year, the Radio Amateurs’ Emergency Network celebrates its sixth decade of service. Stephanie Jones-Berry reports AS THE UK braces itself for the next onset of cold weather this winter, a little-known group of communications volunteers is preparing to help keep emergency care services running. The Radio Amateurs’ Emergency Network (RAYNET), which celebrated its 60th anniversary last month, supports emergency responders when communication networks fail or become overloaded. It helped to co-ordinate disaster responses, including for the Lockerbie air crash, in 1988, and for several major floods. In addition, volunteers driving the network’s radio-equipped 4x4 vehicles take front line nurses to hospitals during periods of bad weather. ‘Every winter for the last few years, we have been called out to assist in getting nursing staff into hospitals,’ says volunteer Daryl Willcox, a member of the group in Eastbourne and Wealden, East Sussex. ‘In a few situations, we even moved people to and from hospital.’ According to chair of RAYNET Cathy Clark, a retired teacher from Oxfordshire, the network’s 2,000 volunteers are mostly licensed radio amateurs, and include ambulance workers and other healthcare professionals. ‘We have good contacts with our emergency planning officers, who often call us in,’ she says. ‘If there is a potential weather problem, like snow or floods, volunteers are put on standby and called out when necessary.’
RAYNET services are called on when hospital or ambulance staff experience communication problems, or in major incidents where emergency services are stretched. During the 2007 Gloucestershire floods, for example, the local telephone system became overloaded and the network established reliable radio-communication centres. Search teams In bad weather RAYNET’s members often set up ‘snow desks’ to provide ambulance and police services with information on road conditions by radio. And, if hospital or ambulance service control rooms fail, RAYNET can provide back‑up communications. ‘At the Lockerbie air disaster, volunteers went out with the search teams and set up portable installations to make radio communications possible,’ Ms Clark recalls. ‘Up to 200 people a day operated for ten days until recovery of the 270 dead was complete.’ The network was formed in 1953, in the aftermath of major east-coast storms and floods that led to the deaths of more than 300 people. Telephones and coastal radio stations had been put out of action, but a group of radio amateurs defied licensing regulations to answer distress calls and alert rescue services. When the disaster was over, they formed RAYNET. Ms Clark says that, despite advances in communications technology, the network is needed more than ever. ‘With our current unpredictable climate and the high risk of failure of modern communication networks, RAYNET volunteers can make a crucial difference,’ she explains. Mr Willcox urges emergency nurses to consider joining the network because they are particularly good at dealing with the unexpected. ‘Many of our local groups can advise on training and the basic licence only takes a weekend to complete,’ he says. Stephanie Jones-Berry is a freelance writer
Find out more More information on RAYNET is available at www.raynet-uk.net December 2013 | Volume 21 | Number 8
Downloaded from RCNi.com by ${individualUser.displayName} on Nov 27, 2015. For personal use only. No other uses without permission. Copyright © 2015 RCNi Ltd. All rights reserved.
9
