Levels of demand on NHS accident and emergency departments in England have been described as unsustainable by the head of the health service regulator.
Care Quality Commission chairman David Prior said there was no guarantee that another disaster like that at Stafford Hospital could not happen in future.
Hundreds of people are thought to have died after receiving poor care there.
Mr Prior's comments came at a conference hosted by health think tank the King's Fund.
'Out of control'Pressures on accident and emergency departments across the NHS in England have been increasing in recent months.
It has been clear for some time that pressures have been growing in A&E.
For the past decade the numbers attending the units has been rising year-on-year. There are now more than 21 million visits a year - up 50% in a decade.
There is a combination of reasons why they have grown, including rise in number of people with chronic conditions such as heart disease that end up having emergencies, the ageing population and problems accessing out of hours GP care. A&E units have also had problems recruiting middle grade doctors which creates staffing problems.
But until recently hospitals had just about been coping.
However, the harsh winter seems to have tipped A&E units over the edge.
In the past few months the waits patients face have hit their worst levels for a long time.
The four-hour target - 95% of patients have to be seen to in this time - started to be breached in many places. Since the start of April the NHS overall has missed it.
There are signs with the weather improving so have waits, but not as much as many would have liked.
The problem is that A&E is the safety net of the NHS - the place people go when there is no other option. If it breaks there is a real problem.
The number of patients having to wait longer than the government's four-hour target before being admitted, treated or discharged increased.
Mr Prior, who took over the running of the regulator in January, said attendance at accident and emergency departments was rising at an unsustainable rate.
He added that there was no cast iron guarantee that there would not be a repeat of the situation at Stafford Hospital.
Mr Prior said: "Emergency admissions through accident and emergency are out of control in large parts of the country. That is totally unsustainable."
Mr Prior is also reported to have suggested the large-scale closure of hospital beds and investment in community services.
He added: "The patient or resident is the weakest voice in the system. It is a classic market failure - the user doesn't know nearly as much as the professionals, even with the internet."
Lack of confidenceMr Prior is not alone in proposing a radical shake-up of A&E services.
The College of Emergency Medicine, which represents casualty department doctors, believes between 15% and 30% of patients admitted could be treated elsewhere.
Care minister Norman Lamb told the same conference that people had lost confidence in the services provided when their GP surgery was not open.
"We have out-of-hours care that too often falls down," he said.
"People end up with the default option of A&E because there is nothing else that they are confident in."
Anda sedang membaca artikel tentang
A&E demand unsustainable - watchdog
Dengan url
http://sarapanoatmeal.blogspot.com/2013/05/a-demand-unsustainable-watchdog.html
Anda boleh menyebar luaskannya atau mengcopy paste-nya
A&E demand unsustainable - watchdog
namun jangan lupa untuk meletakkan link
A&E demand unsustainable - watchdog
sebagai sumbernya
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar