Provide more community beds, says campaigner

 

* Mabon ap Gwynfor with Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood outside Llangollen Hospital.

 

Hospital wards should be re-opened as a matter of urgency, following revelations that there are 400 fewer beds in North Wales compared to last five years.

 

That’s the view of a health campaigner, who made his call in the wake of an emergency medicine consultant at Wrexham Maelor blaming lack of beds for the pressures on A&E.

 

Mabon ap Gwynfor, of the North Wales Health Alliance and Plaid Cymru parliamentary candidate for Clwyd South, called on the Welsh Government to set a strategic goal that no District General Hospital should have acute bed occupancy levels of more than 80%.

 

In addition, he said beds should be re-introduced into communities following the closure of four community hospitals in north Wales.

 

Mabon ap Gwynfor said:  “When we formed the campaign to keep hospital beds in Llangollen, it was exactly because of this reason. We knew that patients would find themselves staying longer in General Hospitals or be discharged only to be re-admitted again immediately afterwards.

 

“Staff are working extremely hard and it’s unfair to expect them to work in such conditions. It’s not surprising that morale is low when they’re under such pressure.

 

“This is the consequence of a centralisation agenda by both the Welsh Government and local health board, which has meant taking services away from our communities and also failing to invest properly in a proven alternative before rolling it out. Patients should not be used as guinea pigs for an unproven Home Enhanced Care programme.

 

“Hospital acquired infections are far more likely to occur in hospitals that have 85% occupancy rates or higher, therefore the partial closure of two wards in Wrexham Maelor over Christmas because of noro-virus should not have come as a surprise. Unless drastic changes are made, this will happen again and it will continue to place significant pressure on the hospital and their staff.

“The Government’s by now regular financial injections merely deals with the symptoms and not the cause. They should use the money to invest in community hospital beds and get the service back to working order.

 

"By investing in opening wards and re-introducing community beds, this would take occupancy levels down and ease much of the pressure we are seeing with delayed transfers of care and re-admission.”

Tractor crash road stays closed

Yesterday afternoon's tractor crash on the A5 Chirk bypass will mean a section of the road is closed until tomorrow (Wednesday) according to a story in the Daily Post.

See the full story at: http://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/a5-chirk-tractor-crash-bridge-8475639

Paths group plans latest public meeting

THE lobby group which aims to combat the damage it says is being caused to the countryside around Llangollen by off-road vehicles is to stage its latest public meeting next month.

Save Our Paths (SOPS) was set up last year to oppose what it claims is widespread abuse and trespass by 4x4s and motorbikes in the hills around the town.    

The group held its first public meeting at Llangollen Town Hall last October which was attended by affected residents along with representatives of local councils, police, countryside organisations and the off-roaders themselves.

SOPS is now planning a follow-up meeting at the Town Hall starting at 7pm on Thursday, February 19.

Organisers say that questions under discussion will include if the councils and police have listened to the arguments put forward at the last meeting and whether local MPs and AMs have taken up the SOPS cause.

 

They say the meeting is for all residents of the area.

 

Cost of policing to rise by 3.44%

A  3.44 per cent increase in the cost of policing North Wales has been agreed - it works out at 17p a week for Band D households in the region.

 

The rise in the precept was unanimously approved at a meeting today (Monday, January 19) of the North Wales Police and Crime Panel in Conwy.

 

Police and Crime Commissioner Winston Roddick CB QC, pictured below, said: "Its importance to the quality, effectiveness and efficiency of policing North Wales is vital as it is to the ability of the force to keep north Wales a safe place to live work and visit.

 

"That last objective is more challenging now than at any other time. Keeping the people safe has become the policing imperative."

 

Mr Roddick pointed out that 2015/16 will be se fifth consecutive year of severe cuts for North Wales Police, with £19.6m having been cut over the previous four years.

 

He said: "Grants were cut by 18 per over the same period. All the political parties

are committed to reducing the nation’s annual deficit over the next Parliament and we are told that we are only half way there.

 

"It is very likely, therefore, that cuts of a similar level will be made over

the next four years as were made during the previous four years.

 

"Although inflation has been kept to a minimum in the budget itself, it is still a challenge. The cost of the national IT service, for example, has increased by 22 per cent."

 

According to Mr Roddick, the force would need to cut a further £15.5m over the next four years.

 

The Commissioner added: "The front line has been protected as far as possible, but the more cuts that are made the more likely it is that they will affect front line services.

"In the meantime, there are new demands on the police, such as the increased terrorist threat, cyber crime, child sexual exploitation and the new victim’s code.

 

“The HMIC - Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary - report last year found that North Wales Police had identified the savings to cope with the cutbacks.

 

“Since then, of course, there have been further cutbacks but we are satisfied that we will be able to police North Wales effectively although it will be a greater challenge.

 

“I have asked the Chief Constable if he is able to cope and he has said that provided the precept can make up for some cutbacks then North Wales Police will be able to cope.

 

"In future, we will need to ensure we achieve even greater value for money and there is more work to be done in terms of collaborating more with other forces.

 

"A recent example was the alliance we have formed with Cheshire Police in relation to armed response.

 

"At a time when budgets are tight, strategic alliances like this makes a great deal of sense.

 

"Through innovative collaboration like this, we can continue to provide enhanced policing to communities across North Wales and reduce costs at the same time.

 

"I take my responsibilities very seriously and we have struck the right balance between sensible financial management and the operational effectiveness of the force."

Accident on A5 Chirk bypass

The Daily Post's news blog reported just after 2.20pm today (Monday) ...

ACCIDENT: Reports of queuing traffic on the A5 Chirk bypass due to accident involving up to three vehicles . Traffic between A483 (Halton Roundabout) and B5070 Chirk Road / Station Road (Gledrid Roundabout).

Llangollen Fire Station tweeted about 3.30pm ...

Llangollen Fire ‏@Llangollenfire 26m26 minutes ago 
              

Traffic backing up through CHIRK as A5 is shut as tractor is in a dangerous position.


The BBC reported about 4.05pm ...

Tractor hanging off bridge closes A5 Chirk bypass, Wrexham

A car driver has been taken to hospital and a major road in north Wales is closed as a tractor is left hanging off a bridge following a crash.

The A5 Chirk bypass is shut in both directions between Halton roundabout and B5070 Chirk Road, following the incident which also involved two cars.

 

Methodists enjoy New Year gathering

FORTY-TWO members of Llangollen Methodist Church enjoyed a New Year gathering at the White Water Hotel in the town recently.

A carvery meal was followed by a quiz organised by John and Gill Newbrook, which was won by Sue Smith and Laura Davies.

* Church members tuck into their lunch.

 

 

* Quiz winners Sue Smith and Laura Davies with, centre, Gill Newbrook.

Hospital beds question under discussion

North Wales has nearly 400 fewer hospital beds and 350 fewer nurses than five years ago, according to new figures obtained by Plaid Cymru – the Party Of Wales.

The figures, released following a series of Freedom of Information requests, shows that in October 2009 the Betsi Cadwaladr Health Board had 2677 in-patient beds and employed 6276 nurses. By October 2014 the figures were 2284 in-patient beds, a 15% fall, and 5907 nurses, a 6% drop.

Wrexham Maelor Hospital saw a drop of 50 beds coupled with the closure of Flint and Llangollen community hospitals during that period (1).

At the same time, the number of inpatient cases in North Wales rose from 80,867 to 86,249 – a 6.7% rise. But in Wrexham Maelor the rise in the past year alone has been 15% - from 26331 to 30409.

Plaid Cymru’s North Wales AM Llyr Gruffydd said that such a reduction in beds and nursing staff was contributing to the difficulties the NHS was facing in terms of coping with a growing elderly population and ensuring there were beds for those brought in by ambulance to A&E.

Mr Gruffydd said: “Closing wards such as the Acton ward in the Wrexham Maelor , coupled with the loss of many community hospitals, help explain why we are seeing long queues of ambulances outside our main hospitals and why people waiting so long for operations.

“The health board claims that nurse recruitment is the problem but nurses tell us they’ve applied to work Bank shifts and not heard back from the board. Instead, we’re seeing expensive agency nurses being recruited when we need longer-term planning in terms of workforce recruitment and retention.”

He was also critical of the health board’s claims that care was now focussed in the community: “These cuts in hospital services would be easier to stomach if we had seen an equivalent increase in funding for community care and GPs, but the truth is that we are facing a looming crisis in GP and primary-care services. I fear GP shortages will be the ‘health story’ of 2015, unless something drastic is done about it.

 “Care at a hospital might be an out-dated concept for health bosses who want to see more care delivered at home but, until the structure and provisions are in place to ensure that home-care is functioning properly and can be delivered within budget, then there is a real danger that the system will fail if they reduce the number of beds and nurses.

 “In recent years, Labour has underfunded the NHS in Wales and, as a result, we have seen a health service struggling to meet demand, which is rising with every new medical breakthrough and with a population that is living longer. The Cardiff Labour Government is presiding over an NHS that employs fewer nurses and has fewer facilities than it did five years ago – that’s a huge indictment of their misrule.”

* See the statistics at:  

1     https://statswales.wales.gov.uk/Catalogue/Health-and-Social-Care/NHS-Hospital-Activity/NHS-Beds/NHSBeds-by-Organisation-Site

* In a related story local health services campaigner Martin Crumpton has contacted llanblogger to say:

“The current BBC website story in which an emergency medicine consultant has blamed a drop in his hospital's performance on a lack of capacity in parts of the region shows that at last, somebody with a voice they can’t ignored has told them what I’ve been saying all along, but studiously ignored. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-north-east-wales-30863360

“As llanblogger readers will know, this confirms everything I’ve been campaigning against since our Cottage Hospital and others were closed. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve written to the Board of Betsi Cadwaladr urging them to reopen our hospital and others in North Wales so misguidedly, reprehensibly and disastrously shut in the now-infamous `North Wales Health Is Changing’ debacle.

“Blaming this on internecine political wars between the Welsh and English NHS authorities is nothing short of ludicrous and is procrastination instead of action. Last week, I watched the Parliamentary Select Committee in which it was made crystal clear that the NHS cannot un-knot itself from the bed shortage without a sharp and immediate increase in bed capacity – well, the capacity was there all along until the bean counters of the loathed Mary Burrows regime decided they could spreadsheet their way to major savings.

“And it’s going to get worse because of the same ill-thought-out policy: When the GP practice and the chemist move to the wholly-unnecessary new and bedless Health Centre at the far edge of Llangollen, are going to react instinctively and dial 999 if they develop worrying symptoms or their children sustain deep cuts. It’s human nature, especially where children are involved. Ambulances DO NOT take people to clinics or Minor Injury Units, only to hospital A&E.

“Llangollen is an elderly town with a high proportion of residents without private transport. For the majority, it’s relatively quick and easy to get to the Regent Street Health Centre for worries and minor injuries. Anyone’s understanding of human nature and physical capability will know that the River Lodge site is beyond reach if you don’t have a car, and you’ll certainly think twice about leaving blood or vomit all over a taxi, if you can afford one – if you can risk waiting for one, as they’re not bound by NHS target times to arrive.

“Something I find genuinely disturbing is the silence coming from the doctors at the Regent Street Health Centre. To date they’ve only given one statement  - they opposed the closure of the Cottage Hospital.

“I ask the doctors to reconsider moving to the new health centre, and to put their weight into helping the campaign to have the Cottage Hospital re-opened. There cannot be a better outcome for us and North Wales at this time.”