NHS WASTE

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East Midlands Ambulance Service (EMAS) has spent more than £1.3m on taxis for non-emergency NHS patients in the last financial year. EMAS's spend was the second highest amount for a region in the country. Brian Brewster, director of finance for the service, said it used a mix of vehicles to save vital resources. Unison said using taxis lead to a lack of patient care, and using unskilled drivers instead of trained ambulance staff could put patients at risk.

In 2010/11, EMAS spent £1,310,695 on 50,769 journeys across the region. North West Ambulance Service (NWAS) had the highest spend at £2,472,199. From April to July this year, EMAS spent £299,671, behind NWAS at £323,583. Mr Brewster said, "We use typically the Red Cross, St John Ambulance services or other credible providers to move patients around the system. All our patients' requirements are assessed before the movement, so we put the appropriate resourced and skilled staff with them. It's much more than taxis. We do use taxis for some patients but these are largely double crew vehicles, where we're moving stretcher-type patients from hospitals back home or into nursing homes."

Sara Gorton, from Unison, said, "There may be occasions where it is unavoidable, but while these are not patients who have dialled 999, there will be times when they will need someone with more skills and training than just how to drive. Increasingly, services are being outsourced to private firms which means that competition is based on costs, and standards are being driven down." Mr Brewster added, "These are patients that are being discharged or moved into hospitals for a planned attendance. All our patients' requirements are assessed before the movement, so we put the appropriate resourced and skilled staff with them."

The NHS said it was aiming to reduce the use of taxis amid concerns that their use was not providing value for money. The Department of Health said it was up to local NHS bosses to make decisions on transport. The figures were obtained from ambulance trusts in England, Wales and Northern Ireland following a BBC Freedom of Information request. (Source: BBC News, Oct/11)

A hospital has apologised after forcing elderly patients to use a tamborine rather than an electric buzzer to attract attention in an emergency. The tambourine was put in a day room in a hospital wing after elderly patients feared it was too far for nurses to hear any cries for help. Watchdogs found the musical instrument was the only emergency call system for patients using the room in the West Wing of Cardiff Royal Infirmary. "It is ridiculous. These people are pensioners not Mick Jagger," said one resident. "Where is the dignity in asking old and frail people to bash on a tambourine if they are in trouble? It makes the NHS look like a laughing stock."

He claimed that earlier there was a pair of maracas in the day room for patients to use, in case the tambourine was broken. Patients in the hospital's West Wing complained they were "too scared" to use the day room in case staff do not hear their calls for help. The hospital is well-known for its long corridors and has even been used to film episodes of TV's Dr Who. So staff put the tambourine for the old folk to "shake and bash" to attract staff in an emergency. Ruth Walker, executive director of nursing for Cardiff and Vale University Health Board, yesterday apologised for the tambourine, and said a new emergency bell will be installed. (Source: Daily Telegraph, Jun/11)

Britain's unhealthy eating habits are costing the NHS more than the combined impact of cigarettes and alcohol. A rising tide of diseases caused by poor diet and couch potato lifestyles are costing the health service around £12bn a year, almost twice the £6.6bn spent on ill health linked to smoking and alcohol, according to research by experts from Oxford University and the World Health Organisation. The paper, published in the Journal of Public Health, says obesity and poor diet now place "the largest economic burden" on the NHS of all lifestyle choices.

Experts said that while the individual health risks of smoking and excess drinking are high, resulting in billions spent treating liver disease and lung cancer, the far higher numbers of people eating a poor diet had a bigger overall impact on NHS costs. The percentage of adults who smoke has almost halved since the 1970s, while obesity levels have quadrupled, with one in four adults now classed as obese. Obesity and poor diet are linked to heart disease, most cancers, diabetes and stroke, among other diseases. (Source: Sunday Telegraph, May/11)

Muslim doctors and nurses are to be allowed to opt out of strict hygiene rules introduced by the NHS to restrict the spread of hospital superbugs. Female staff who follow the Islamic faith will be allowed to cover their arms to preserve their modesty despite earlier guidance that all staff should be "bare below the elbow". The Department of Health has also relaxed rules prohibiting jewellery so that Sikh members of staff can wear bangles linked with their faith, providing they are pushed up the arm while the medic treats a patient. The change has been made after female Muslims objected to being required to expose their arm below the elbow under guidance introduced by Alan Johnson when he was health secretary in 2007.

The rules were drawn up to reduce the number of patients who were falling ill, and even dying, from superbugs such as MRSA and Clostridium difficile. Revised guidance which relaxed the requirements for some religions was published last month. Some Muslim staff and those from other groups may be allowed to use disposable plastic over-sleeves which cover their clothes below the elbow and allow the skin to remain covered up. A Department of Health spokesman said, "The guidance is intended to provide direction to services in how they can balance infection control measures with cultural beliefs without compromising patient safety." (Source: Sunday Telegraph, Apr/10)

A paratrooper shot in the neck by the Taliban contracted MRSA in a British hospital as he fought back from his injuries. Sergeant David 'Paddy' Caldwell was diagnosed with the potentially deadly superbug at a Birmingham hospital after being airlifted back from Afghanistan. He had been leading his platoon in an assault on a heavily-defended Taliban compound when he was hit in the throat and neck by machine-gun fire.

After first being treated at a field hospital in Afghanistan, Sergeant Caldwell was transferred to the intensive care unit at Selly Oak's Royal Centre for Defence Medicine. Most service personnel injured overseas are flown to this centre, where they are treated alongside NHS patients. Sources said Sergeant Caldwell contracted MRSA after three months at the hospital. He is now recovering from the infection.

A Department of Health spokesman said reports of MRSA were taken very seriously. He added, "In the new operating framework, the Government has put aside £50million of capital which trusts can bid for to tackle MRSA. This means that £300,000 is available per trust. This money can be used for improving washing facilities and building better toilets." (Source: Mail on Sunday, Dec/06)

The government has long been encouraging individuals to take out private medical care insurance. Now, the gullible ones who heeded that advice, are about to be kicked in the teeth. Health Secretary John Reid is ready to buy all Britain's 220 private hospitals and turn them into NHS ones. The deal would cost £5 BILLION but would allow an extra 250,000 patients a year to be treated. Private medicine could be killed off by genetic advances that will predict the diseases we are likely to get. Those at risk wouldn't get insurance cover and with drastically fewer patients, private hospitals would shut. Dr Reid said, "If that's the case, I'll buy them out. We'll take resources which have been the monopoly of the rich and use them for the benefit of all." The health service has already bought hospitals in London and Clydebank from the private sector.

Almost £650,000 has been spent on operations that were never performed. The money was paid by health trusts in Derbyshire to private company Partnership Health Group. The primary care trusts, alongside trusts in Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire and South Yorkshire, had signed up to a deal with PHG for hip, knee, hand and feet operations worth £13.4m in 2004-5, with the aim of cutting NHS waiting lists. According to new figures released by Nottingham City Primary Care Trust, Derbyshire's trusts agreed to pay £2,689,547 of this but only £2,046,135 of operations were carried out, meaning £643,412 was wasted. In total, just £10.1m of operations were carried out. Under the five-year contract, PHG gets to keep the difference. Doctors' representatives the British Medical Association blamed the waste on the trusts. (Source: Derby Evening Telegraph)

The NHS is throwing away billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money. The last National Insurance tax hike was meant to raise £8billion to improve front-line health services. But much of the cash is being swallowed up by red tape and the creation of hundreds of meaningless jobs with high salaries. While hospitals are desperate for nurses, the NHS is hiring managers on £30,000 a year to lecture people on eating more veg. A report by the independent Audit Commission said, “There is a real risk that the value of billions of pounds of new public money will not be maximised.” The Commission says many hospitals with second-rate managers are swallowing the extra cash they have been given without improving patient care.

Ministers’ promises to hit targets for doctor and nurse recruitment, waiting times and other pledges are also doomed to fail. James Strachan, boss of the Audit Commission, which monitors public spending, rapped the Government for setting “too many piecemeal targets”. And he added, “The pressure put on waiting time targets has led to a tremendous amount of distortion of the system.” The Commission’s probe revealed billions earmarked for killers like cancer and heart disease are being used to prop up hospitals’ day-to-day budgets. And it warned a raft of Government pledges will not be met in the ten-year NHS plan. There is only a 45% chance of hospitals hiring the number of nurses needed, and only a 30% chance of casualty waits being cut to a maximum four hours.

Ambulances only have a 50/50 chance of hitting a target of reaching 999 calls in eight minutes. The study PRAISES NHS chiefs in some areas. GP services are quicker, with hundreds of thousands more patients seeing a doc within 48 hours. Out-patient waiting times have been cut to 21 weeks for most patients. And few have to wait more than a year for an in-patient operation. But the study warns that only 50% of patients will get a GP’s appointment within 24 hours, the target the Government has pledged to achieve. Audit Commission experts also warn short-term improvements in efficiency are unlikely to continue in future years. A SECOND influential report also clobbered the Government.

The Office for National Statistics warned the Government was achieving less with every pound it spent than five years ago. It reported Government productivity had nose-dived by five per cent since 1998. The study said, “Resources are being used less efficiently.” Shadow Chancellor Michael Howard said, “Questions must be raised about the value people are getting for higher taxes.”

The Kent and Sussex Hospital is spending up to £23,000 a week to ferry patients from ward to ward in private ambulances, because the lifts are BROKEN. Dozens of sick people are wheeled outside into the cold on trolleys then driven 400 YARDS uphill to beds in another wing. NHS bosses are paying up to £100 an hour of taxpayers' money to send dead bodies through the same grim procedure to get to the mortuary. The crisis began when the 15-year-old lifts, which are second hand and are thought to have been bought from Gatwick Airport, broke down. The lifts are crucial because one wing, built in the 1930s and containing the accident and emergency department and mortuary, is on a different level to other wards.

When the lift control panel went haywire, the NHS trust which runs the hospital in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, had to hire two private ambulances to back up their own hard-pressed 999 vehicles. Director of nursing Bernard Place confirmed that each private ambulance is on call for nine hours during the day at a cost of £100 an hour. A third is on standby for 15 hours during the night at the same rate. He added, "The lifts are essential due to the different floor levels. But, as they are not working, patients are brought outside on trolley from casualty, put into an ambulance and driven up the hill to the back entrance to go on another ward. I am concerned that patients who have been in casualty or in theatre are being taken outside particularly at this time of year."

A porter is also alleged to have injured his back while struggling to get a drum of clinical waste into a vehicle. A trust spokesman denied the figure of £23,000 a week, saying, "It ranges from £50 to £75 an hour depending on whether an ambulance is needed during the day or at night. So far we have spent £28,000 in four weeks and we will need an ambulance next week." He added that any dead bodies were transferred "with dignity".

Tory health chief Tim Yeo believes patients "don't care" about waiting lists. He made the ridiculous claim as the Conservatives drew up secret plans to scrap Labour's pledge on waiting times for operations. Mr Yeo said, "People don't care about waiting lists. For every one person who is concerned about waiting times there are a hundred who are more interested in the standard of GP services." Health Secretary Dr John Reid hit back saying, "No one in touch with what really matters to patients would suggest time waiting in pain for an operation doesn't matter."

He warned that the Tories planned to spend millions on schemes like Mr Yeo's "patient's passport" which would allow the well-off to claim back the cost of private treatment from the NHS. Dr Reid said, "The Tories' health policy subsidises the rich few who already pay to go private and jump the queue with money paid in tax by the rest of us. Under their plans less money would go into the NHS and waiting times would get longer for everyone unable to pay thousands of pounds for their operation."

The NHS has 24,000 more pen-pushing admin staff than hospital beds. The number of managers in the red tape-plagued service has soared to a record high while the total of patient places has FALLEN. In the past year alone, 12,000 more bosses were hired to monitor 300 Government targets.

Many draw fat salaries in obscure jobs such as service planners, information analysts and programme facilitators. Official statistics show that for the 199,670 available beds, there are 224,030 administrators. The figures proved the £40billion NHS boost announced by Chancellor Gordon Brown in his Budget is being poured down the drain.

And doctors told how the army of clerical staff is HINDERING patient care rather than helping it. Even hospital bosses admit there are far too many layers of admin. The figures revealed the number of senior NHS managers more than doubled in the past decade, to 27,000, while the number of beds fell by 59,000.

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