Hospital staffing crisis forces wards to close

ON Monday a decision was taken to close Wycombe Hospital's Accident and Emergency Department to patients needing admission as there were no beds available.

The department remained shut for two days.

Mr Griffiths, told the Free Press after he came out of an emergency meeting at the hospital on Tuesday: 'There is a crisis and this has been a very hard decision to make, but we had no choice.

'We are in really serious difficulty and there are a number of reasons which go together to bring us to where we are now.'

As staff tried to deal with the backlog of patients waiting for beds on Tuesday, others were queuing up in the crowded Accident and Emergency waiting area for treatment.

Mr Griffiths said: 'The situation we had on Monday evening was that there were 30 patients in the Accident and Emergency Department who had been examined and needed to be admitted but at that point we had no beds available to admit them to.

'This is a very serious situation and it means that because the department is full there comes a point when it is more unsafe to carry on accepting new patients so we asked the ambulance service to take patients to one of the other hospitals in the area.'

He said the trust tried to do everything in their power to prevent the situation occurring but in the end found it unavoidable.

News of ward closures hit the headlines last month when health bosses were forced to shut a 26-bed ward and eight beds in two other wards because there was no one to staff them.

Roy Darby, chief executive of South Buckinghamshire NHS Trust which runs the hospital, said that it are making every effort to combat the pressures they are under.

He said: 'I would like to apologise to patients and GPs for the inconvenience of this difficult situation and express our appreciation to the hospital staff for coping under tremendous pressure and to the neighbouring hospitals for their assistance.

'We are working on a number of levels to try to restore normal services as soon as we can under the difficult circumstances we find ourselves in.'

Mr Griffiths said that wards had to be closed because there was not enough staff to run them safely, despite attempts to give nurses and other medical staff financial incentives and a recruitment drive to gain staff from abroad.

He said: 'The staffing levels are having a fundamental effect on our ability to maintain the service for the community.

'Another difficulty is the increase in the number of emergency admissions which is 16 per cent higher than last year and the number of patients being discharged from hospitals is being delayed.'

He said that an example would be where an elderly person is waiting to go in to care but, because of delays in being placed, they remain in a hospital bed.

Mr Griffiths added: 'All the factors together have contributed to the situation we are now facing.'

Although the Government has pledged extra staff, cash and launched a national recruitment campaign to help hospitals cope, staff and hospitals throughout the country are still under immense pressure, Mr Griffiths added.

The closure of the Accident and Emergency department at Wycombe Hospital is the latest in a long line of problems affecting South Buckinghamshire NHS Trust.

Health officials had to recruit nurses from Toronto and Trinidad last November to staff the Haleacre Unit - the mental health unit at Amersham Hospital.

Despite recruiting more than 20 nurses, only 17 have stayed to become permanent members of the ward's staff.

Frith Ward was one of two wards at the unit which had to close last during Christmas because of a lack of staff.

Vulnerable patients had to be sent to other units and hospitals at a high cost to the trust.

Other wards have been affected by a shortage of qualified nurses and healthcare workers throughout this year.

In August the 26-bed ward 5B at Wycombe Hospital had to be closed for one month and eight more beds were lost at surgical wards 1A and 2A because of a staff shortage.

Ward 1B was only available to patients part-time as it closed at weekends because of staffing.The recruitment crisis is a national problem but it is made worse by the fact that nurses at Wycombe Hospital under South Buckinghamshire NHS Trust will not receive London weighting on their wages whereas those at nearby Wexham Park will receive the financial incentive.

Hospital staffing crisis forces wards to close

ON Monday a decision was taken to close Wycombe Hospital's Accident and Emergency Department to patients needing admission as there were no beds available.

The department remained shut for two days.

Mr Griffiths, told the Free Press after he came out of an emergency meeting at the hospital on Tuesday: 'There is a crisis and this has been a very hard decision to make, but we had no choice.

'We are in really serious difficulty and there are a number of reasons which go together to bring us to where we are now.'

As staff tried to deal with the backlog of patients waiting for beds on Tuesday, others were queuing up in the crowded Accident and Emergency waiting area for treatment.

Mr Griffiths said: 'The situation we had on Monday evening was that there were 30 patients in the Accident and Emergency Department who had been examined and needed to be admitted but at that point we had no beds available to admit them to.

'This is a very serious situation and it means that because the department is full there comes a point when it is more unsafe to carry on accepting new patients so we asked the ambulance service to take patients to one of the other hospitals in the area.'

He said the trust tried to do everything in their power to prevent the situation occurring but in the end found it unavoidable.

News of ward closures hit the headlines last month when health bosses were forced to shut a 26-bed ward and eight beds in two other wards because there was no one to staff them.

Roy Darby, chief executive of South Buckinghamshire NHS Trust which runs the hospital, said that it are making every effort to combat the pressures they are under.

He said: 'I would like to apologise to patients and GPs for the inconvenience of this difficult situation and express our appreciation to the hospital staff for coping under tremendous pressure and to the neighbouring hospitals for their assistance.

'We are working on a number of levels to try to restore normal services as soon as we can under the difficult circumstances we find ourselves in.'

Mr Griffiths said that wards had to be closed because there was not enough staff to run them safely, despite attempts to give nurses and other medical staff financial incentives and a recruitment drive to gain staff from abroad.

He said: 'The staffing levels are having a fundamental effect on our ability to maintain the service for the community.

'Another difficulty is the increase in the number of emergency admissions which is 16 per cent higher than last year and the number of patients being discharged from hospitals is being delayed.'

He said that an example would be where an elderly person is waiting to go in to care but, because of delays in being placed, they remain in a hospital bed.

Mr Griffiths added: 'All the factors together have contributed to the situation we are now facing.'

Although the Government has pledged extra staff, cash and launched a national recruitment campaign to help hospitals cope, staff and hospitals throughout the country are still under immense pressure, Mr Griffiths added.

The closure of the Accident and Emergency department at Wycombe Hospital is the latest in a long line of problems affecting South Buckinghamshire NHS Trust.

Health officials had to recruit nurses from Toronto and Trinidad last November to staff the Haleacre Unit - the mental health unit at Amersham Hospital.

Despite recruiting more than 20 nurses, only 17 have stayed to become permanent members of the ward's staff.

Frith Ward was one of two wards at the unit which had to close last during Christmas because of a lack of staff.

Vulnerable patients had to be sent to other units and hospitals at a high cost to the trust.

Other wards have been affected by a shortage of qualified nurses and healthcare workers throughout this year.

In August the 26-bed ward 5B at Wycombe Hospital had to be closed for one month and eight more beds were lost at surgical wards 1A and 2A because of a staff shortage.

Ward 1B was only available to patients part-time as it closed at weekends because of staffing.The recruitment crisis is a national problem but it is made worse by the fact that nurses at Wycombe Hospital under South Buckinghamshire NHS Trust will not receive London weighting on their wages whereas those at nearby Wexham Park will receive the financial incentive.