WARNING - a rant!

I have been really good and careful since starting writing this blog to keep everything reasonable and in moderation but sometimes we receive letters that just beggar belief. We received such a letter last week and I can no longer contain my frustration ....

So if you don't want to read a rant click delete now!

RANT ON

As I am sure you are aware our local Acute Trust is moving into the brand new Pinderfields Hospital during February and March with the bulk of the move happening this weekend (25th to 28th February). Last week we received a letter from Wakefield PCT telling us that the hospital has been coping with high demand since before Christmas (we had noticed because we keep getting faxes about the hospital being on RED alert and when we do try and get a patient admitted they have no beds and we are told to send them to A&E) and asking us to do the following actions to help 'suppress' demand (sounds like they are a dictatorship talking about a democratic uprising!).

They made a long list and the pick are:

  • 'GPs must see a patient before attempting to admit a patient to hospital'. - Yes, that is what we do!
  • 'Consider and make use of all alternatives to hospital admission' - Yes, we would if there were some !
  • 'Improve seasonal flu vaccination rates in general' - We have achieved 90% in all our target groups
  • 'Consider enabling existing GP slots in an afternoon to be deployed as drop-in slots' - Yes, that is why the on-call doctor has his afternoon slots embargoed
  • 'Consider offering additional capacity within primary care to enable the system to cope with urgent and emergency care demands' - Could do this if you paid us extra but the person who wrote the letter was on leave till today ...typical!

It seems to me that they have not realised that there are going to be pressures on admissions since (wakey, wakey) the new hospital will have 120 less beds, that the hospitals have been under pressure since before Christmas and they have fat chance of solving these problems in 10 days before the move.

I do feel better now.

RANT OFF

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