General Chat

A new hospital is being built nearby.

Yay......... or not.

It will be opening in March or April......

BUT........ there are no operating theatres, and no emergency section.


I'm not sure, but I don't think there will be a maternity ward either!


I can't help but wonder........... what's it for?

:-S

Does seem odd.....

Consultations by Specialists on an occasional basis, perhaps to save patients having to travel?
Convalescence for 'locals' after an operation or while recovering from a stroke?

Sometimes, I can see an analogy with hospitals an abattoirs.
In the UK, they closed the local abattoirs for 'safety' reasons, thereby making the poor animals travel further to their death.
They also build new hospitals, similar to yours, LadyScozz, with no emergency section, thereby making patients travel further - hopefully not to their death - but ensuring it's more likely!!!

In Hampshire, they've 'amalgamated' two hospitals that are 25 miles (minimum of 36 minutes away), one in Winchester, the other in Basingstoke. If Basingstoke are short of a midwife, they demand one from Winchester (thereby leaving Winchester short).
My daughter used to work for Winchester hospital. Now, she's expected to work for Basingstoke, when it suits them.
Travelling there adds a good 45 minutes to her journey - she's not paid extra for the journey, neither is she paid for the extra time she has to book (usually at the last minute) for her children to be looked after.
She's also paid the same mileage, even though she's sometimes expected to travel over 50 miles per journey (she goes to peoples homes) than she signed up to - and this means more wear and tear on her car!!

There used to be a full hospital on the university campus. The powers-that-be closed the Emergency Ward about 5 years ago. It now serves as an Urgent Care Centre for non-life threatening emergencies, and is open 8 am to 10 pm daily.

The nearest Full Service Emergency is either about 15 kms away in downtown, or about 13 kms away directly east. Both directions have bad traffic problems

Doesn't sound too bad ......

...... except that there are over 51,000 students and over 14,000 staff and faculty on campus when the university is in session, and about one-quarter of that total will be on campus for most of the year.

Plus there are about 20,000 people living in very expensive housing that has been built on the campus.

and about another 30,000 at least living with a 5 km radius of the campus.

In other words, a town of approximately 100,000 has been left without immediate care for life-threatening emergencies!

I do have to say that the hours of operation are better than when the plan was first set up ............. back then, it closed at 5 pm, and was only open Monday-Friday :-S

The nearest hospital with an emergency section is up the coast... in Queensland!

Not that far really, takes us about 30-45 minutes to drive there...... but I'd hate to be in a speeding, sirens screaming ambulance, flying up the freeway. :-( I think the ambulance would get there quicker than we could, but it's still a long time if you're in trouble.



:-(

that's the point ....... it's a long way when you are in trouble, no matter what the pundits say!

Private hospital?

Animal hospital?

Isolation?

Convalescence?

Dolls hospital? :-) ;-)

Non surgical obviously.

Tropical diseases?

Some years ago our smallish town had two small hospitals fulfilling different functions, though neither operated an A & E department. Then we were told that the NHS was acquiring a piece of common land locally for a new hospital which would have full outpatient facilities and have several inpatient beds mostly for the elderly.

There was an outcry locally as this was common land and the "commoners" were not consulted but the acquisition went ahead. The NHS fenced the land and put up a board but did nothing more for a number of years, during which time one of our little hospitals closed completely, the other closed its wards which were used for stroke rehabilitation and dementia patients, and just had a few outpatient clinics.

Every so often we would hear what was happening with the new hospital and each time the facilities had decreased until it became a health centre with no beds. This was eventually built but not on the original piece of land.

It is quite a good health centre but I live only a couple of miles from it and if I couldn't drive or had mobility problems I would be struggling to get there. I would have to get a bus in to town, wait sometimes for a very long while for the inconsistent bus service that is supposed to serve the new health centre, and then do the same thing in reverse to get home.

And the original piece of land? The NHS have sold that off for housing. So we have lost a piece of common land, lost our two small hospitals, have a health centre that is difficult to get to by public transport and still have to go over 20 miles to the nearest hospital for most treatments and all emergencies.

Rant over. As you can tell, it is a very sore subject with people around here. I wish you more luck with your hospital Lady Scozz than we have had with ours.

Not all that long ago A&E could be divided into two sections, those who might survive and those unlikely too. Despite the bells and klaxons hopsital A&E could do little for the latter except dole out pain relief.

Today ambulances arrive with highly skilled medics who aim to get the injured person stabilised so that a team of experts can use the "magic hour" to save a life. They are more often successful than not.

Such teams depend on a lot of experience and know how plus state of the art kit being right there. It is unrealistic to expect a major trauma unit every 30 miles or so. When required the rescue helicopter bridges the time gap.

Health care facilities inc A&E should be based on patient need not the convenience of hospital staff. Building hospitals which can deal with the myriad needs other than A&E trauma is entirely logical. In the UK the number of A&E units is targetted for about a 50% reduction with major upgrades to those remaining.

Some of my family work in Hampshire hospitals. I have never heard them moan about it.

Well, one of my rellies works at the sharp end as a senior A&E nurse in a Hertfordshire hospital and she *is* moaning about the proposed closure/downgrading of a neighbouring A&E department. It will add up to 20 mins journey time for emergency patients with no increase in size or staffing for her department.

mmmm... one of my lot was a senior SRN in Devon. She was increasingly unhappy so she left and has been working in Australia for 2 years. Double yr money ...

My mother was an SRN at St Mary's Portsmouth 1940-46 so she got plenty of practice at A&E. All the nice girls.

Det, my argument exactly - and in some cases, with reduced staff.
Not only that, the extra travelling at the last minute for staff is both disruptive and time consuming - with no extra remuneration.

This situation, of course didn't happen in the 1940's. Facilities were local, as were staff. They weren't expected to own cars, and drive everywhere at very short notice.
My sister in law is a Charge Nurse in Southampton. Her job means she doesn't have to travel about, but is aware of the situation on colleagues.

Perhaps some of those not affected by the situation amalgamations cause are totally unaware of how this affects other members of staff, so all's well with their world, and anyone who is affected should just stop moaning, cos 'we're all right, Jack'.

Rollo - as long as she isn't considered too old, we rather expect her to emigrate to NZ where her older sister lives. Their mother is in her mid -eighties. After the mother dies.....???

I have no idea what the situation is in the UK .............. but one often unconsidered aspect of the closing of Emergency Departments and amalgamating them at other hospitals further away that WE see here is the following .............

Ambulance personnel are not allowed to leave patients they have brought to Emergency until they have been fully admitted into the department and all paperwork has been completed.

At busy times, this may mean waits of 2 hours or more as line-ups develop at the two downtown hospitals.

Most of our ambulance personnel are fully trained paramedics, able to carry out a lot of medical procedures before the patient reaches the hospital

This takes ambulances out of service .................. which can cause major problems.

Yes, ambulances can be diverted to other hospitals in the region, up to 40 or 50 km away .................. but line-ups develop there. And ambulances may be drafted in from other regions to help out, thus depleting those regions.


Can you imagine a situation where there are no ambulances available because they are all in line-ups waiting to get patients admitted into Emergency?

Re your last post Sylvia, yes, I think the situation re not leaving until admission complete is similar here.