SUPERHOSPITAL

Page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4
 

Dozens of beds at Derby City General Hospital and Derbyshire Royal Infirmary will be cut to help save £15.9m this year. Chris Calkin, financial director of the trust that runs the hospitals, said that about 150 beds, the equivalent of five or six wards, were likely to go in the next few years. It means many patients will not be admitted for an overnight stay ahead of operations and that more treatments will be carried out as day cases. (Source: Derby Evening Telegraph, May/07)

Nearly half of all hospital kitchens and canteens in England could be failing to meet basic standards of cleanliness and hygiene. Vermin, cockroaches and mouse droppings, medical waste on food handling equipment and poor person hygiene among catering staff were all cited as problems. A report said dozens of hospitals were failing to store food at the correct temperature, while 18 had food that was out of date, putting patients' health at risk.

The findings came from a Freedom of Information request submitted to a quarter of all English local authorities, asking them for their local authority health inspection reports into the food preparation areas of hospitals within their authority. It revealed nearly a fifth of hospitals surveyed kept food at the wrong temperature or in unsafe conditions, while 11 hospitals had problems with vermin. Of the 377 hospitals included in the responses, 173 displayed poor cleanliness and 68 fell below the legal requirements for food storage conditions.

A total of 107 hospitals did not have correct food safety documentation, 25 had inadequate staff training and 66 stored food at incorrect temperatures. The findings showed 11 institutions had a vermin or pest problem while 57 had staff with poor personal hygiene or a lack of hand washing. In six hospitals, inspections highlighted five or more areas of concern. These were: Farnham Road Hospital in Guildford, Churchill Hospital in Oxford, Blackpool Victoria Hospital in Blackpool, City Hospital in Derby, Ipswich Hospital in Ipswich and Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital in Norwich. (Source: Daily Mail, Aug/07)

In 2005 Buxton Hospital's minor injuries unit began closing its doors at 8pm on weekdays and is now extending this to include weekend evenings. Health officials claim the early closure is due to staff shortages and cash problems. Councillor Andrew Bingham said, "I understand the trust has to balance their books but they should not be cutting vital services. They should treat according to clinical need and to cut the minor injuries unit is reducing frontline services. They should look at some of the bureaucracy and cut waste." The High Peak and Dales Primary Care Trust currently has a £2.9m budget shortfall. (Source: BBC News, Mar/06)

<<< Prev