York Hospital in beds crisis

11:15am Tuesday 1st April 2008

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PATIENTS have been waiting up to ten hours to be seen in accident and emergency as York Hospital's bed crisis reaches breaking point.

Bosses said today that the hospital had been on a state of alert for the past three months, with staff struggling to cope.

The news comes as it was revealed York Hospital could be facing about a £1 million cut in funding this year from the local NHS trust.

The impact on patients could be more service cuts and longer waits on trolleys before getting a bed at the hospital.

Yesterday, there were so few beds available that a "red alert" was issued and it will remain in place today as emergency patients are forced to stay on temporary beds in the Accident and Emergency department.

Hospital chiefs revealed they had been on a state of alert all year because they were forced to axe beds and freeze staffing levels by the debt-ridden North Yorkshire and York Primary Care Trust (PCT).

Deputy chief executive Mike Proctor said: "Red alert means that patients are spending a long time in A&E which is inappropriate. Sometimes it is six hours, eight hours even ten, sometimes they are on trolleys. Bed occupancy is so high here it is critical."

"They are not out in the corridors, but the situation clogs up the A&E department so we can't treat the minor injuries."

"The PCT's demand management measures have not been as successful as they, or we, would have liked.

"We have been like this since October and it has got worse since January. We are looking to increase beds and staff as quickly as possible to deliver the care to meet peak demands in the emergency department."

Hospital chairman Alan Maynard said: "The pressure on the hospital has been immense. We were on red alert again today (the highest state of alert for bed shortages) and this means patients are having to wait.

"Nurses and bed managers are working extremely hard to get patients out quicker so we can get the new patients into them, but it has been very challenging for us to meet the four-hour target time for A&E patients."

This year, the hospital is facing a cut of about £1million. Mr Proctor said: "If there is less money in real terms, then this is going to be challenging for all hospitals and potentially threaten services.

"It will further compromise our ability to provide the whole range of services we currently do and that is a concern for health care providers.

"We closed wards and lost staff last year to make a contribution to the financial recovery plan of the PCT, but emergency admissions have continued at the same level and that has made life very difficult for us."

Care chiefs defend cuts in funding

BOSSES at North Yorkshire and York Primary Care Trust (PCT) have defended their cut in hospital funding.

Last year, the PCT set aside £410 million to pay for activity across the region's hospitals, overspending by £18 million.

This year, finance chiefs have allocated £436 million of their budget to hospital contracts - a figure that hospital bosses believe should be £5 million higher to take into account inflation.

However, the PCT's performance director Bill Redlin said the situation was more complex.

He said: "In the financial year just gone we put huge sums of money into hospital to deliver the 18-week referral to treatment targets. That was a one-off in 2007/8 and the money that we put in to achieve the targets, we are now taking back out.

"We treated a backlog of patients that had built up on waiting lists and the targets have largely been delivered - that is one of the very good news stories in North Yorkshire."

Mr Redlin said changes to the NHS system of payment had also contributed to the decrease in funding.

North Yorkshire and York PCT began last year with £48million of inherited debts. These were part of the legacy left after the four original PCTs in North Yorkshire merged in October 2006.

A £13million surplus this year has paid off some of this debt, but PCT bosses still have to make savings of £35million to completely clear the deficit.

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