My local Accident & Emergency department is rammed with suicidal residents going to A and E as they have no where else to go

This was posted today on Facebook by Paula Peters.

“I want to share a couple of experiences of the mental health services cuts with you today.

I have a local CMHT ( community mental health team) in south London, we had three CMHTs it went down to two, and the discharge rate in the last four years is massive. You will only stay under a CMHT if you are on Clozapine medication, other than that you are back to primary care and GP. You can imagine for clients, as the team calls them, what that does for them with no treatment, no support and no supporting medical evidence needed for (disability benefits) ESA and PIP and support for UC (universal Credit) Claims. My local A and E is rammed with suicidal residents going to A and E as they have no where to go, and local counseling services have an 18 month and longer wait for therapy. The average wait to see a GP in some practices in Bromley is now 8 weeks and climbing. as not only is there a shortage of consultant psychiatrists, but, there is a shortage of GPs.

Just recently, i saw my local consultant psychiatrist who I have not seen since October 2016. I have not been able to see them because they have been on sick leave and there was no one else to help out. I found out when I saw them, what happened.

They now manage two teams within the CMHT, psychosis and adapt. They have 5,000 clients to deal with, appointments and paperwork. That does not include dr training, management of staff, in patient work on the local unit and any other work required of them.

At Christmas they were so tired and wrung out that they caught their bag in a slam door in the office that severely broke their wrist. They did not know the wrist was broken at the time and they went back to the desk they share with 6 other members of staff and wrote up 7 people’s medical notes as they were behind on doing so.
They ended up in A and E for 9 hours and a plaster cast on and off for the next 8 months after a series of operations. They were so stressed when I saw them they were at breaking point.

All they talked about was targets targets targets. Many of them unachieveable and they pointed out the three people going around with clipboards harassing staff. Apparently the next round of redundancies were due. They said they are not sleeping, scared and worried about their jobs and worried about clients who are not getting the support they need.

They cant send anyone for treatment at the local inpatient unit because well there are no beds for 300 miles there are nursing shortages and dr shortages.

When I saw my consultant they said the suicide rate and self harm rate is rocketing due to lack of support. They are angry at the government for the lack of service support and further cuts to come.

As for me, well i am on my third support worker in 9 months. They keep leaving. They are so stressed and depressed am surprised they don’t label the place the titanic!

The support worker who i will only see for six sessions is not sure when she will see me next as she has 1200 clients to see. She is not sure if she is sticking around either. As i need continuity of care with GP i cant get a GP appointment right now she is off sick and they are not sure when she is coming back and the other GP has no openings on the appointment book until December, they can’t get a locum as there is a shortage of those and many of them are engaged elsewhere in the coming weeks.

The cuts to mental health services are claiming lives, putting lives at risk, not just the patients, but the staff too. Patients are being denied the support they so need to get through each day. There is no support available and no good going to local MINDs as it is all work is a health outcome and jog your way through depression which is not helpful to anyone with a severe mental health condition and in serious mental distress.
The person needs support and compassion not to be told they are a burden, told its all their fault and get back to work as soon as possible.

Before you donate to a local mental health charity check first they are not involved in the health and work programme, they do not employ staff and zero hours contracts and they are not bidding for local council and DWP contracts. If they are avoid them, because they are not working for claimants in mental distress but against them. National Mind being paramount to working and colluding with national government and DWP on health and work programme contracts who think if we go out jogging we can jog our way through depression and anxiety and if we think ourselves better, we will be better.

Here is my response to MIND – jog on what utter bollox! If i could jog my way out of depression, and having RA and fibro and HMS its out of the question I would have done it by now and think better and everything will be well?

No, with a tory government and national charities working with them and they persecuting people in mental distress as well as disabled people everything is not well. Its a bloody mess and people are taking their own lives.

We need to talk about this every day, not one day a year because the cuts are going to get worse and with the UC roll out accelerating the deaths and poverty will go through the roof too.

……………………………………………………………

this was posted in the comments:

“I know 3 people who rang crisis team for help as they felt suicidal, one was recently an inpatient after an attempt 2 had both made attempts in the past year, they were all told they would only get help if they attempted suicide. Very sadly, one did and is no longer with us 😦 Those of us who are working in mental health are doing so with not enough resources and far too little time and many of us are becoming unwell too”

If you are having dark thoughts yourself please contact the Samaritans on their free number (free for mobiles, too) 116 123.

‘Medical opinions ignored’ by NHS payment assessor, workers say

Medical opinions have been ignored in the assessment of NHS payments to patients receiving care, it is claimed.

Three health workers said an assessor organisation discounted medical views so some patients were denied NHS care.

Norman Lamb MP said England-wide data obtained by the BBC showed a “regional disparity” and was “an injustice”.

However the assessor organisation, Arden and Greater East Midlands CSU, says it follows national guidelines to decide on payments.

Under national criteria, the NHS pays for long-term support and care if a patient’s condition is severe enough.

However, BBC Inside Out East has found a wide difference among clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) in England in the percentage of patients rejected following assessment for continuing health care (CHC).

Between July 2016 and July 2017, Birmingham South and Central CCG rejected 75% of its new CHC assessments, Manchester CCG turned down only 17% of assessments, while Tameside and Glossop CCG only rejected 5% of those assessed.

All assessors – of which there about half a dozen covering England – should use the same criteria.

Three health workers told the BBC that one of the main assessor organisations, Arden and Greater East Midlands CSU (Commissioning Support Unit), sometimes ignored medical opinions in assessments so patients could not obtain NHS care.

One worker told the BBC: “There has been bullying at the meetings – attempts to ridicule people who are there who have a professional opinion.

“They ignored what professionals have said and changed what professionals have said. The concern is that this puts patients at risk.”

read more here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-41187615

My child is in pain, bleeding and she is ignored because we are poor. We have no NHS to go to anymore.

From my Facebook feed.

My kids have a variety of ongoing health needs. Three days before a consultant appointment we waited 6 months for, we received this letter. I called the hospital who refused to speak to me. They just told me to speak to Virgin Care. You can’t speak to Virgin Care. Only leave voice mails to which they don’t respond. I wrote a letter to which they responded. I got an initial assessment appointment and again have heard nothing since. I still haven’t seen a consultant. In all since seeking a referral from my GP it has been 18 months. This is the new Tory Health care. And it is targeted at your children. If you want this for your babies. Carry on and vote Tory in June. My child is in pain, bleeding and she is ignored because we are poor. We have no NHS to go to anymore. This is your UK if you want to save our NHS. Do something.

 

An NHS hospital is being forced to CROWDFUND to buy beds, thanks to Jeremy Hunt

A London hospital has been forced to crowdfund for vital equipment, including beds, because it cannot afford to invest the money itself.

Begging for beds

The Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital (RNOH) in Stanmore, north-west London, set up the appeal in a bid to raise £400,000 for its spinal injuries unit. The money will go towards six extra beds for the ward, plus new rehabilitation equipment. The RNOH has so far raised £126,000.

The campaign, called the ‘Make it Possible’, is thought to be the first time any NHS hospital has crowdfunded for investment. The project works by allowing patients and families to suggest where money could be spent. Then an appointed committee selects one of the suggestions, and the crowdfunding begins. The spinal injuries unit was the first to be chosen.

Chief Executive of the RNOH, Rob Hurd said that because all the hospital’s money goes into frontline services, very little is left for investment:

We have to be frank, capital is constrained in our NHS and investment in facilities is really difficult at this time. That means the infrastructure that we have got doesn’t get replaced as quickly as we would like. So we need the help of donations and charitable sources to make those additional investments. So we really value those donations because without them we cannot even get started.

Financial uncertainty

The RNOH is one of the country’s flagship orthopedic hospitals, where one in five orthopedic surgeons are trained. But it has fallen into financial difficulties. A proposed renovation of the hospital’s century-old buildings, signed off under Labour in 2010, was delayed by more than five years. The RNOH was initially looking for a private company to fund the work (paywall). But in August the Department of Health (DoH) signed off the first phase of funding. This was only possible because part of the RNOH site was sold off to private developers, and loans were taken out.

The £49.9m awarded to the RNOH will go towards a new inpatient block. The hope is that the DoH will then sign off another £31m for a training centre and biomedical facilities. But, as the crowdfunding project has shown, this only covers the bare essentials. And even on a day-to-day basis the hospital is struggling. It warned in October 2015 that it faced losing £15.2m in income in 2016/17, due to changes in the way the DoH allocates funding.

Read more here: http://www.thecanary.co/2016/10/25/nhs-hospital-forced-crowdfund-buy-beds-thanks-jeremy-hunt/

“I am a midwife and I wish I was dead”: Shocking open letter reveals stress on NHS staff : Daily Record. — DWPExamination.

The midwife author is responsible for 40 women, 80 lives A midwife has penned a shocking open letter revealing the stress of the job, admitting: “I wish I was dead.” The anonymous note, sent to the Liverpool Echo , claims the role is “a black hole destroying my world.” The author talks of the stress […]

via “I am a midwife and I wish I was dead”: Shocking open letter reveals stress on NHS staff : Daily Record. — DWPExamination.

How The DWP Is Drafting In Doctors To Promote Iain Duncan Smith’s Warped Ideology

Are you working hard enough?  Are you sure?  What if you get sick, or have an accident?  Are you prepared to go to work anyway, even if you don’t think it would be good for your health?  What if your doctor and boss agree you could do something other than your usual job instead of malingering at home?  Like making cups of tea all day, or cleaning the bogs, or any form of work your empoyer can dream up to force you not to take time off.  Because that is now the chilling reality as the DWP attempts to inject Iain Duncan Smith’s warped ideology into the NHS

the void

Are you working hard enough?  Are you sure?  What if you get sick, or have an accident?  Are you prepared to go to work anyway, even if you don’t think it would be good for your health?  What if your doctor and boss agree you could do something other than your usual job instead of malingering at home?  Like making cups of tea all day, or cleaning the bogs, or any form of work your empoyer can dream up to force you not to take time off.  Because that is now the chilling reality as the DWP attempts to inject Iain Duncan Smith’s warped ideology into the NHS.

Last week the DWP issued patronising new guidance to GPs on when they should issue a Fit Note.  Doctors are warned of the dangers of ‘worklessness’ and told they must consider “the vital role that work can play in your patient’s health”.

View original post 1,061 more words

NHS facing worst ever winter as Tory hospital cuts could see 35,000 doctors and nurses lose their jobs

Britain’s top union has warned that unless there is an urgent “injection of cash” our hospitals face their worst winter ever

Debt is at an all time high, soaring numbers of the sick are waiting on trolleys in A&E and key targets for treating cancer patients are being woefully missed.

Yet as the NHS deals with the worst “cash crisis in a generation” we can disclose things are only going to get worse.

A Sunday Mirror probe can reveal up to 35,000 doctors and nurses could be AXED to balance the books – which are already £2bn in the red this year.

As trusts plunge into debt private firms are getting increasingly rich – with many now offering huge cash sums of £500 for NHS workers simply to sign up to websites.

And Britain’s top union has warned that unless there is an urgent “injection of cash” our hospitals face their worst winter ever.

read more here:

Midwife shortage crisis forces 4 out of 10 maternity units to close

Four out of 10 maternity units were forced to shut last year because of a staffing crisis among midwives, a shock survey has revealed.

The disclosure is the latest blow to rock embattled Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt .

It comes after it emerged on Friday that NHS trusts in England have racked up a huge £930 million deficit in just the first three months of the financial year – twice as much as the same time last year.

One maternity unit had to close an astonishing 33 times in 2014.

The highest number of closures at a single unit this year was on 23 occasions, according to the UK-wide survey carried out by the Royal College of Midwives.

It warned that maternity units now faced an unprecedented challenge due to the high birth-rate, increasingly complex births and a crippling shortage of midwives.

According to the RCM survey, 41.5% of maternity units shut down at some point last year because they could not cope with the demand.

read more here: http://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/midwife-shortage-crisis-forces-4-out-of-10-maternity-units-to-close/ar-AAfj9tN?ocid=spartandhp

The figure is up significantly on the 32.8% forced to close in 2014.

On average, maternity wards across the UK closed their doors 6.6 times in 2014 and on 4.8 occasions in 2015.

One Head of Midwifery who took part in the survey said: “The level of pressure everyone is feeling is now palpable. Worrying times.”

Another complained of working 60 hours a week – despite being employed on a 37.5 hours per week contract.

Almost a third of the senior midwives said they did not have enough staff.

At present, the NHS remains short of 2,600 full-time midwives in England.

And, an overwhelming 91.3% said their unit was dealing with more complex births than in the previous year.

95-year-old’s FOUR-hour wait for ambulance laying on floor then FOUR-AND-A-HALF hours to see doctor

A 95-YEAR-old woman was left lying in agony on the floor with a broken hip for more than four hours waiting for an ambulance – and then had to wait a further four-and-half hours to see a doctor at hospital.

Alma Gaffing fell and broke her hip at the Grimsby Grange and Manor Care Home, based on the Nunsthorpe estate.

Five separate 999 calls were made as care home staff and family members waited impatiently for an ambulance to arrive.

The incident happened at 10.30pm, yet Alma, who suffers with dementia, did not arrive at A&E at Grimsby’s Diana, Princess Of Wales Hospital until 2.45am.

Read more: http://www.grimsbytelegraph.co.uk/95-year-old-s-hour-wait-ambulance/story-27834520-detail/story.html