Stretched to the limit - 24 hours in New Cross Hospital A&E
The Express & Star was given an unrestricted behind-the-scenes look at exactly what is happening on a daily basis. Reporters Tim Spiers, Adam Thompson and Mark Andrews and photographers Tim Thursfield, Steve Leath, Patrick Mulvaney and Alan Evans bring you the result of 24 hours in A&E at New Cross Hospital:
New Cross Hospital’s overflowing accident and emergency department is being stretched to its very limit – and the Express & Star was granted exclusive 24-hour access to see first-hand the incredible pressures staff are under.
Deaths, life-saving, arguments, tears, frustration, drunken louts and a lot of waiting around – we saw it all during our privileged inside look as A&E was laid bare.
Our reporters and photographers shadowed staff and patients from 6am on Friday to 6am on Saturday and witnessed the good, the bad and the ugly of an increasingly under-pressure emergency department.
Staff worked 12-hour shifts with barely a break to speak of, while some patients lay on the ward for more than 10 hours as they waited patiently to be moved to the correct medical unit.
24 hours in New Cross Hospital A&E - As it happened
Nurses frantically tried to manage the heaving workload, doctors moved swiftly from patient to patient, porters ferried people and objects around the ward to keep things ticking along and security guards hovered looking for signs of trouble as they attempted to keep the peace.
Systemic problems were revealed as to how patients even arrived at A&E in the first place, with many ailments clearly too minor to be treated in such a major and busy environment.
Around 40,000 extra patients per year than it was designed to cope with currently visit A&E.
The hospital has come in for heavy criticism as it struggles to cope with relentless demand – and staff say the situation is the worst it’s been in decades.
Bosses in charge have even labelled their own A&E department as “unfit for purpose”.
Suffering patients being treated in cramped corridors has become the norm, while on extreme occasions some are left to wait in ambulances outside. But the situation is set to get even worse, with the fallout from the Stafford Hospital scandal yet to be fully realised. To remedy the jam-packed capacity problems the trust which runs New Cross authorised £1million worth of improvements last year. It then announced that a brand new £25m A&E – four times the size of the existing department – would open in 2015.
But problems have persisted and the trust could be hit hard in the pocket with a £750,000 fine for not meeting ambulance targets next month.
This week it was announced that yet another seven-figure facelift will be given to A&E as £1.5m is spent on adding 12 extra beds to the department. It will more than double the number of ‘major cubicles’ as there are only nine at the moment – but the chief executive of the trust said the extension, although necessary, still wouldn’t make a silk purse out of what is a “sow’s ear”.
David Loughton has also admitted that the current overflow of patients, which at its height sees 350 attendances at A&E per day, would continue for the next two years until the new department is built. Around 80 per cent of patients at New Cross’ A&E come and go within just hours having been treated for their relatively minor injuries.
But emergency care is not readily available – or at least not up to scratch – at other health centres in the region.
Serious problems exist such as the lack of an emergency service that GPs provide -– or the fact that people have to wait days to be treated with their GPS when they can turn up at New Cross and wait for a few hours.
Whatever the future holds it’s clear that the incredible work of staff largely goes unappreciated.
Four pages of coverage from 24 hours in New Cross Hospital A&E in today's Express & Star
Comments for: "Stretched to the limit - 24 hours in New Cross Hospital A&E"
Andy
Great piece of work to highlight the pressures staff and hospitals are under. My partner works within Intensive Care and it's no different in that unit either. With Stafford's decline more and more people now approach her hospital to the extent that A&E is barely coping and ITU is full. She works shifts which are 14 hours long, often not even being able to grab a drink for many hours - it's ridiculous. No other work place would condone it or allow due to Health and Safety.
Yes there are staff who are inept where there is no excuse, but the vast majority of NHS staff are hard working but are not being given due respect when it comes to being allowed to do there job without time or target pressures.
Paul HUBBALL
What a surprise!! I remember going to the A&E about 14 years ago with my mother who was gravely ill. It was sheer chaos at 8.00 p.m. and when we were sent home with no treatment and my mother suffering intensely, at 11.00 p.m. I realised what a perilous state the NHS was in. I still consider that the staff are the main barrier to implementing a CARING service. I include all the medical staff with particular reference to consultants, and doctors who are variously concerned with status, free masonry and golf.
K
Several years ago I was a clerk on A&E on night shifts Thursday evenings, it's definately an eye opener and nothing changes.
Mark Jukes
My mother was recently rushed in to New Cross Hospital in the early hours of a Sunday Morning with heart problems. A & E were extremely busy, but, I have to say, dealt with my mother in a caring and professional way. I could not fault the staff in any way shape or form. Even when she was transferred to a ward, many hours later, the standard of care was something that they should be proud of. The government, through its austerity cuts, can not see the pressure they are puting our needed Health Care Proffesionals through. Although Stafford Hospital would have been my mothers receiving hospital, I am so glad that what happened, happened in the middle of the night when Staffords A & E was closed, and was taken to the outlying New Cross. Outstanding care, much commended..
Anne-Marie Cropper
If they are stretched to the limit now what are they going to be like when they have Stafford and Cannock to take on to.
Just goes to show men in suits making decisions without doing the math once again. People will die unnecessarily if the move of Stafford A&E allowed to go through due to overworked departments
DIMEGLIO jean-charles
may I make the most of this opportunity to say once more how grateful I am to the whole staff in the Intensive Care Unit at New Cross ;they saved my life in Sept;2007, after I was diagnosed with legionella: After a whole month I was discharged on 2nd Oct.
May I say here again how wonderful they all were ,with me my son and my English Partner. The Express and Star was invited to join us at the "presentation/thank you get-together" some time after . They were all dedicated to their jobs (this includes the physios, the biologists, the chemists and pharmacists and cooks and ,cleaners) and deserve our respect."They kept me alive".Will never forget. D. J.ch. from Limoges.
bobwolf101
As I commented Friday - most should never have been there in the first place....it is sheer selfishness that many cannot be bothered to wait to see their GP.
the eternal optimist
I find this comment derogatory to all nhs hospital workers. I also believe it to be very outdated. In a&e as well as most parts of the hospital, care is provided to all patients regardless of who they are. This is regardless of long hours worked and pay freezes, as well as the patients sometimes being verbally and physically abusive.
Many junior doctors work within these environments and work very hard to do their best by every patient. After all, I don't believe there are many jobs which carry such great responsibility or risks of litigation. I work within the hospital and can say that the service I provide at the start of a 12 or 14 hour shift is the same I provide at the end. Every patient is shown respect, after all who are we to say who does or does not need care. There are many reasons why people attend a & e, something people who have never worked there would not fully appreciate.
I'd like to add when we had the bad weather new cross carried on as normal. Staff went above and beyond to make their way into work as they care for their patients and the services they provide. I'd like to remind the cynical people who make such offhand comments about the lack of care by staff that there are many people in a&e demanding and needing care and attention. The only way to deal with this is by triage and the most poorly patients should be dealt with first, a matter of life and death should be seen before a stubbed toe. Hospital staff see things in a day that can be incredibly upsetting and then we pick ourselves up for the sake of all the other patients so we can help them to get better. Our jobs affect lives and nhs staff are fully aware of this.