UK cancer and children’s wards being hit by closures

[Northerner]

Growing numbers of hospital units that provide cancer care and children’s services are among those being forced to shut because the NHS’s deepening staffing crisis means it has too few doctors and nurses to operate them safely.

The closures are leading to patients having to travel further to receive care as NHS bosses increasingly decide to centralise services in fewer hospitals in response to gaps in rotas.

The trend prompted the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) to warn that “skeleton staffing” means patients are suffering.

https://www.theguardian.com/society...rds-being-hit-by-closures-nhs-staffing-crisis

 

[trophywench]

It's been happening for years across all sorts of conditions/specialities, depending on where you happen to live, cancer just being one of them. I've especially noted today that they have now relaxed the point at which GPs are expected to do something else with men having PSA tests - the referral to hospital level used to be 4.0 - now the maximum lab limit is shown as 5.1. Dunno whether it's automatically then referral or something else, like active surveillance by the GP or what.

We've been seeing it for years - decades! - already with diabetes services. This is just more of the same but grabs bigger headlines than ALL hospital services in Norfolk for instance.

We were pretty gobsmacked only a fortnight ago when someone we know attending the Royal Bucks recently diagnosed with prostate cancer. Consultant has already talked about prostatectomy with our friend. They don't have a Da Vinci robot so if he opts for that once they tell him more about his options - but that won't be until mid December whereas that bit took about a fortnight after the various tests, template biopsy etc with Pete - 'admittedly the recovery and scar are longer' - yeah? Used to be from sternum to pubic bone so it probably is a smaller cut now admittedly - but not the 2 inch scar Pete has. Men will opt to be in hospital for ages with a drain tube in as well as a urinary catheter rather than home (just with the catheter which needs to stay in for a fortnight any way) the following morning with home cooked food and comforts?

Pete's urologist told him that in his own opinion, using the robot had made him a better surgeon - and that's independently borne out by his results.

There are still very large healthcare trusts responsible for shedloads of us, who don't have access to the best machinery or the expertise to use it. What we've seen up to now is the thin end of the wedge - cos it absolutely can't get better without cash.

 

[Amigo]

My local hospital has just hit its Govt. key targets across the board including cancer care.

I can tell them as a reluctant consumer of these services they’re way off the mark and I can only assume it’s measured in statistical/performance marker terms and not patient experience! 🙄

 

[mikeyB]

That’s right Amigo. They only measure things that they can get good at without having any regard for outcomes. That’s how hospitals like North Staffs can hide excess death rates like they did long before the effluent hit the fan.