Nurses worried over £10m York NHS cuts (From York Press)
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Nurses worried over £10m York NHS cuts
11:00am Thursday 27th September 2012 in News
By Richard Catton, richard.catton@thepress.co.uk
THE planned £10 million in cuts to healthcare in our region has been condemned as “shocking” by the most respected nursing organisation in the UK.
NHS North Yorkshire and York bosses have been accused of quick-fix solutions after they announced a raft of cost-saving measures intended to slash a growing £19 million deficit.
However, in response to the proposals, the regional director of the Royal College of Nursing, Kevin Austerberry, said: “This is shocking news and we’re extremely worried about the direct impact on both patients, provision of care and nursing jobs.
“The trust is proposing significant short-term cuts with little or no consideration for the long term. Stopping GPs from treating minor injuries and cutting the opening hours of minor injury units makes no sense. It will only add pressure on more expensive critical services, like accident and emergency.
“Closing community hospital beds without putting alternative support in place could see more patients end up in hospital. The trust is also looking at contravening a national commitment by government to increase the number of health visitors by calling a halt to recruitment.”
He said cutting non-critical services meant patients would not be supported at every stage of their illness, and called for the NHS to step in to provide cash and ensure patients care did not suffer.
NHS North Yorkshire and York chief executive Chris Long said: “In order to ensure we can continue to provide essential services to everyone in North Yorkshire and York, we must make some difficult decisions about the services we provide both this year and into the next.
“It is estimated that these measures will save approximately £10 million, and we are working with local health partners to identify further measures required to keep the projected deficit to £19 million.
“It is important to state that these measures will not in any way affect access to emergency care.”
inthesticks says...
2:38pm Thu 27 Sep 12
Maybe they won`t affect access to emergency care but as you well know if other support is cut then more people will come into A&E unnecessarily and cause more of a burden on already overworked staff.
Also if bed numbers are cut and wards shut down it just means pushing people home before they are ready to go and putting up extra beds in already full wards, thus expecting staff to look after more patients per head.
We were told how taking Scarborough into the York Trust would not affect York patients but it clearly does as York now takes some Scarborough patients where services have been curtailed in Scarborough to save money. No extra staffing or bed spaces were allotted at York for this and York patients have to wait longer for particular treatments because of it. I was told this by a Doctor at York when I questioned my waiting time, `Oh it`s because of all the Scarborough patients we have now as well`.
We should be encouraging GP`s to undertake more non-emergency care not less, it just doesn`t make sense to have more people coming in to A&E, there is already a huge burden from people who aren`t an emergency.