There is an interesting article in the Sunday Telegraph, about ambulances being kept waiting as various accident and emergency departments keep their doors closed to meet targets.
According to ambulance chiefs this is putting patients at risk.
In part this is blamed on the change to GP's contracts in 2005 allowing them to stop providing out of hours services which has meant a 30% increase in 999 calls.
The other things that does not help is the massive reduction in NHS beds since 1997. Yes you read that right. By 2001 Labour had slashed 10,000 beds. Since 2005 according to the article, it has slashed another 20,000.
Just how does Labour manage to spend such a vast amount on the NHS whilst cutting it so brutally? And why does anyone take them seriously when they accuse the Conservative party of wanting cuts?
Just to illustrate my point, I will mention a friend of mine, who went into hospital (not the Princess Royal) with a heart complaint. He spent 3 very difficult days there, but he remembers a heated conversation in the middle of the night. Accident and Emergency had called demanding that the head nurse in charge of the ward discharge someone so they could send another patient up. In the middle of the night. In a ward full of very sick people with heart problems.
New Labour will come knocking in the night, even if you are seriously ill, just to get a headline.
How sick is Labour.
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Targets hmmm.
I'm trying without any luck to find a list of the current targets that an NHS Trust must measure to be compliant. I once heard a figure in the 140 region but I've got no reference to confirm or deny that.
Each of these measurements will employ at least one person full time, plus the possibility of shared secretaries, to record and analyse the data and present the results to the correct authority. If proven true then as with many things over the last decade it seems that a significant sum of money is being spent proving that improvements are being achieved rather than spending that money to achieve the improvements.
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