NHS hospitals offload sick on to families and GPs are called in to clear wards
Hospitals are sending patients home early into the care of relatives as they try desperately to free up beds.
They have warned families to ‘be prepared’ to look after loved-ones at home – by perhaps administering injections or moving those who are bedbound.
The notice was been sent out by a Leicestershire health trust in a last-ditch attempt to relieve pressure on its beleaguered AE unit.
Hospitals are sending patients home early into the care of relatives as they try desperately to free up beds (file photo)
The latest indication of the depth of the NHS crisis follows a string of revelations about intense pressures it faces.
The news came yesterday as it emerged that GPs at another health trust were being asked to come into hospitals to help discharge patients early and take over their care.
Dr Andrew Green, chair of the British Medical Association’s GP clinical and prescribing sub-committee, said the request was ‘incredible’.
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The unprecedented move is, again, an attempt to free up space on wards to alleviate the pressure on casualty departments.
Widespread bed-blocking and a social care crisis have made it hard for hospitals to free space for patients stuck on trolleys or in AE.
As the NHS crisis showed no signs of abating last night, it was revealed that:
- Patients at one hospital returned to their wards after operations only to find that someone else has been moved into their beds;
- A record 6,825 bed-blocking patients were stuck in hospital in November – a 40 per cent increase on the previous year;
- The NHS Confederation said it was time for the Government to accept that ‘limited investment’ had ‘consequences’;
- Another senior NHS boss and a former Tory MP blamed the Government for failing to invest in social care.
The NHS Confederation said it was time for the Government to accept that ‘limited investment’ had ‘consequences’
Campaigners described the attempts by hospitals to offload patients on to relatives as a ‘recipe for unsafe care’ yesterday.
The request to families was issued on Wednesday by West Leicestershire Clinical Commissioning Group, which serves a population of 366,000.
A spokesman said the local AE at Leicester Royal Infirmary was ‘extremely busy’ with many ‘seriously ill’ patients waiting on trolleys for beds.
LEFT TO DIE ON A TROLLEY
Patients and their loved ones have been sharing their own experiences of the NHS crisis.
One woman told how she saw an elderly man die in a hospital corridor in front of dozens of people.
Patsy Dee, 55, was admitted to Great Western Hospital in Swindon on Sunday night with chest pains. She said yesterday: ‘I walked past him the minute before – I nearly stopped because he looked so ill. He looked to be in his eighties. I don’t know how long he’d been there, but a minute later he must have died as doctors rushed him to the resuscitation area.
‘It was disgusting he should die on a trolley in front of everyone – there is no dignity in that.’ She said she also had to wait in a corridor for 12 hours.
Last night a spokesman for Great Western Hospital confirmed they were investigating the death and said staff had experienced ‘unprecedented demand’ in recent weeks.
A pensioner in Weston-super-Mare was also left lying on a freezing pavement for two hours as he waited for an ambulance. Reg Nurse, 82, was visiting friends when he fell and smashed his pelvis on January 2.
Friends covered him in blankets while they waited. His sister Carol Roynon said: ‘The paramedic who came said we saved his life.’
A spokesman for South Western Ambulance Service said they had been forced to prioritise other ‘life-threatening emergency calls’.
He added that where patients were medically well enough to go home – but not yet recovered – doctors might sit down with families and teach them to carry out some care duties.
This might include administering an injection three times a day to prevent a patient who has had a hip operation from getting blood clots. Relatives may also consider moving in with patients’ temporarily to help them recover.
Dr Nick Willmott, GP and clinical lead for the commissioning group, said: ‘The hospital will support you to know how to care for your loved-one, and people shouldn’t be afraid to ask questions to make sure they are confident in any techniques they will need.
‘The idea of supporting recovery may seem daunting, but learning these basic techniques, such as administering injections or supporting someone to move from their chair to their bed in the correct way, means that your loved-one can be discharged earlier, and recover more quickly at home.’
But former Lib Dem health minister Norman Lamb said the measures were ‘extraordinary’.
He added: ‘It gives the impression that patients could be discharged from hospital before it is safe to do so. Many people will be frightened by the idea of administering injections. It is irresponsible.
‘The Government and the NHS should be focusing attention on the horror of the record numbers of people stuck in hospital long after they are actually ready for discharge.’
Caroline Abrahams, of the charity Age UK, said: ‘Discharging patients before they are medically fit to leave and without the support at home they need to recover cannot be the right solution – and could get close to breaching the hospital’s duty of care.
‘It is one thing to ask families to help with routine care for an older person, quite another to expect them to take on the full responsibility for administering injections or moving someone who is bedridden when they have not been properly trained.
‘This looks like a recipe for unsafe care.’
Managers at North Lincolnshire Clinical Commissioning Group, meanwhile, are trying to draft GPs into hospital to help discharge patients early. An email sent to GPs – uncovered by Pulse magazine – urges them to assess patients and take charge of their care.
Widespread bed-blocking and a social care crisis have made it hard for hospitals to free space for patients stuck on trolleys or in AE (file photo)
This could include providing visits from district nurses from the surgery, for example.
Figures yesterday showed bed-blocking had reached unprecedented levels, with 6,825 patients in hospital unable to be discharged. This is fuelling the crisis in AE, and leaves very sick patients having to lie for hours on trolleys waiting for a bed.
The claim on Wednesday by the head of the NHS, Simon Stevens, that Theresa May had not spent enough on health and social care was backed yesterday by former Tory MP Stephen Dorrell, and the head of the NHS Confederation, Stephen Dalton.
Mr Dalton, whose organisation represents NHS managers in England, said: ‘We have been issuing warnings of the system approaching a tipping point for some time, but we are now starting to see proof that this point has been reached.’
The news came as whistle-blowers at the Royal London Hospital in East London told how, in the past week, four patients were moved back to wards following operations only to discover that their beds has been taken by others.