Greater Manchester's NHS is buckling under the weight of pressure as it arrives at the most challenging time for the health service - winter. Ambulances queue outside of packed A&Es with patients as there are no beds available on wards, staff are fleeing the NHS in droves amid pandemic-induced exhaustion, and medics say there appears to be no end in sight for demand which is far outstripping the health and care services capacity.
Bed shortages have already become a dangerous problem in Greater Manchester, as reported by the Manchester Evening News last month when a patient died while stuck in an ambulance outside a hospital, waiting for a bed. This has been ongoing for the last year, the region has faced around one-fifth of its 5,000 hospital beds filled with people well enough to be discharged.
“We have approved around £34m of investment across Greater Manchester to implement new schemes ahead of winter. Around £13m to secure additional hospital beds. This is looking at all of the space we might have in our hospitals and keeping as many beds open as possible. "The fourth area of investment is £8m going into a programme called virtual wards. This is how we support people in their own home, supported either through digital technology and people going into their homes. This is to prevent people from going to hospital in the first place but supporting people in their own homes as well."
Just over a year ago, in October 2021, the Medical Schools Council recommended an increase the number of medical students by 5000 to a total of 14,500 graduating doctors per year. Shortly afterwards, Dr Katherine Henderson, President of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, said: “The NHS had widespread workforce shortages before the pandemic and these are at the root of the problems currently facing the NHS.
“Not only will this have a very significant adverse impact on patient care, this loss of doctors will simply result in increased pressure on those staff who remain in the workforce, further increasing the risk of burnout. After years of demoralising real-terms pay cuts and chronic staffing shortages, the NHS and its staff are on their knees.
Scrap the NHS!!! Privatise it!!
Don’t panic the same was said last year and the year before that and so on. It will still survive even whilst they strike 👍👍👍👍
No ,despite the best efforts of staff
...and while you'e at it, refund every penny of NI contributions and other taxes paid that were supposed to go to NHS.
Scrap it. Make healthcare fully £££ driven: people must buy private health insurance; pay for services not covered. All patient data sold to highest bidder (anonymised costs patients more, or top $ to opt out). Volunteers, Red Cross & quacks deal with those who can't afford it.
If only we had a party in power that did not have a problem with the NHS.
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Source: BioMedCentral - 🏆 22. / 71 Read more »