Campaigners demanding more community inpatient beds in south Warwickshire said they were in “despair” as they watched local NHS services reach breaking point last week.
For the first time ever, the South Warwickshire Foundation Trust (SWFT) declared a critical incident – the maximum level of alert – at Warwick Hospital.
Winter viruses added to the pressures at the emergency department as it admitted that attendances were “consistently some of the highest we have ever experienced”.
Although the hospital has around 375 beds, at one point the predicted demand was almost 100 more than that.
Warwick Hospital
A reporter for the BBC, who was on the Warwick site at the time, observed patients sitting in an ambulance for three hours before going into A&E, and some waiting 24 hours or more in the department.
With beds at an absolute premium in the hospital, the journalist watched as a man in his 80s dying of liver failure and in pain had to wait 15 hours to be moved to a ward.
Speaking anonymously last week, one nurse local to Banbury reported how the closure of “small community hospitals is why A&E is becoming more and more like a ward”.
During the incident, SWFT took the decision to create 35 ‘escalation beds’, which are used to help ease a temporary spike in demand, in wards at Stratford and Leamington hospitals.
Although the critical alert was scaled back last Thursday, Beds for the Badger chair Alasdair Elliott took a two-hour bus journey on Monday to visit Leamington Hospital. He said he was told that they were still full and turning people away and that this applied to both community bed wards at Campion in the town and the Nicol ward in Stratford.
NHS bosses are currently holding a public consultation on where 35 ‘community rehabilitation beds’ should be located – with campaigners saying they appear to strongly advocate that Shipston is not a viable option.
However the campaigners, including GP and TV/radio broadcaster Dr Sarah Jarvis, who lives near Shipston, are still fighting for the return of 16 beds that were temporarily moved to Leamington while the new Ellen Badger was built. Pointing out the vital role community hospitals play in easing the burden on acute hospitals, Dr Jarvis said: “The campaign for beds at the Ellen Badger has my full support, because it aligns with this government’s long-term plan for the NHS.
“Rural community hospitals like the Ellen Badger perform a vital role in local primary care, easing the pressure on district general hospitals, reducing waiting and travel time.
“We must highlight the need for the facilities the growing south Warwickshire community requires and needs.”
Campaigner and former health boss Bryan Stoten added: “Hospitals expect ‘winter pressures’ because of the increase in seasonal emergencies such as chest infections, pneumonia and falls.
“Why does the NHS appear to think running the service down to the wire is good management?
“Panic and stress is never good planning or management – it’s bad for staff, patients and public confidence. I despair, winter is very predictable.”
The NHS has given two options for where the community beds can be located in south Warwicksshire:
Option A – Distribute 35 beds across three sites: Ellen Badger, Leamington and Stratford hospitals. This would reduce the number of beds currently at Stratford and Leamington and return up to 12 beds to the Ellen Badger site.
Option B – Provide 35 beds at two sites, Leamington and Stratford hospitals.