23% of local NHS workers looking for new jobs due to low morale

According to a report by ITV news, some 23% of staff at Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Foundation Trust, say they will “probably look for a job at a new organisation in the next year” – compared with a national average of 22%.

From the people I have spoken to, who work locally for the NHS, I can honestly say this news does not surprise me!

NHS staff were surrounded by serious illness and death at unprecedented levels during the pandemic!

Over the last two years, these people have been clapped and offered adulation, the likes they have never seen, and rightly so.

But, more recently, they’ve witnessed the previously supportive individuals, now complaining, often on-line, about whether they should or should not get a basic pay rise and of course, regarding the standard of service, they personally have received.

Such people seem oblivious to the fact, most NHS workers have, and are still going above and beyond their contracted expectations!

“When there are not enough staff it can mean patients don’t receive the care they need or their safety is compromised.”

– Teresa Budrey, eastern regional director at the Royal College of Nursing

Tories have no solution to Peterborough City Hospital’s ‘unacceptable’ A&E performance

You may have read recently that less than 60% of patients at Peterborough City Hospital’s A&E are seen within the four hour target time.

Hospitals are expected to admit, treat or discharge 95 per cent of patients within four hours of arrival.

According to media reports, the North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the hospital in Bretton, said it had seen “significant demand” with a 4.3% increase in emergency admissions year on year.

What does Darren think?

Well, since this news came to light, the Conservative Health Secretary, Matt Hancock, has suggested that A&E targets might be scrapped.

In my opinion, changing the A&E target won’t magic away the problems in Peterborough, with patients left for hours and hours.

Any review of targets must be transparent and based on watertight clinical evidence, otherwise patients will think Matt Hancock is trying to move the goalposts to avoid scrutiny of the government’s record.

After years of austerity under the Tories, the government’s first priority must be to give the NHS the funding and staff it needs to end the waiting time crisis.

Plz let me know your thoughts below!

Peterborough health system faces significant challenges!

At the latest meeting of the Council’s Health Scrutiny Committee, on which I sit, councillors were told that the health and care needs of our rapidly growing, increasingly elderly population are a real concern.

Areas mentioned, included; significant health inequalities, including the health and well-being challenges of diverse ethnic communities; workforce shortages including recruitment and retention in general practice; quality shortcomings and inconsistent operational performance; and financial challenges which exceed those of any other Sustainability and Transformation Plan (STP) area in England!

• Read more about this on Page 105, of the report.

In my opinion …..

• We need to reverse privatisation of our NHS and return our health service into expert public control. That means telling the PFI bods who’ve made so much money to date, and have caused such problems locally for years, that their time is up!
• We need to repeal the Health and Social Care Act that puts profits before patients and make the NHS the preferred provider.
• We need to reinstate the powers of the Secretary of State for Health to have overall responsibility for the NHS.

Don’t forget to let me know your thoughts or opinions below!

We really need to start worrying about the NHS under Conservative control!

Just 6% of Peterborough GPs under the age of 35

At the latest meeting of the Council’s Health Scrutiny Committee, on which I sit,  we were told:

• Across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough the age profile for GPs under the age of 35 years (13%) is well below the national average (18%), with the lowest in the county being in Peterborough at just 6%.
• Whilst 20% of the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Clinical Commissioning Group‘s (CCG) General Practitioners (GPs) are over the age of 54 years, Cambridgeshire has a relatively younger GP profile with only 18% of GPs over the age of 54 years; however, in Peterborough this rises to 25%, higher than the national England average (21%).

In my opinion …..

We need to see some real action to address this problem on the horizon ASAP and we need the City Council to start planning, rather than dragging their feet.

Most people in Peterborough, no matter their efforts at school, never even have the chance to enter into the world of General Practice!

Sadly, the Conservative controlled Peterborough City Council have done little or nothing to address this issue over the last 17 years!

So what to do?

Well, firstly, I’d like to see more local people offered the chance to become GPs, I for one cannot ever remember it being a suggestion from our careers adviser when I was at school?

The Council and various NHS bodies, should be finding ways to encourage young people in our city, to sign up to a pathway to becoming a GP.

At present for me, it remains the recourse for children of the petite bourgeoisie?

Nationally, we need to see the NHS pay cap scrapped, re-introduce bursaries and funding for health-related degrees and immediately guarantee the rights of EU staff working in our health and care services.

Don’t forget to let me know your thoughts or opinions below!

 

 

GP’s in Peterborough are “Under Pressure”

At the latest meeting of the Council’s Health Scrutiny Committee, on which I sit, councillors were informed that a number of general practices in Peterborough, were facing a range of issues, and were basically under pressure!

We were told that:

• A number of practices were “identified as requiring support to become more resilient.”
• 10 local practices had recently received resilience support for 2016/17, to the tune of £145,381.
• There were worries about buildings and whether they could cope with the organisational changes that have occurred in recent years.
• With councillors being told that there “is a perception that the current estate is not flexible enough to cope with either the new growth anticipated and/or new models of care, which will see increased provision of care in the community…“

Personally, I’ve lost count of the number of changes, organisational restructures, renames etc over the last decade within the local NHS.

Whilst their is no magic pill, I do believe that Peterborough City Council must start making clear efforts to:

• Focus resources on services to provide care closer to home and deliver a truly 21st-century health system.
• Work towards a new model of community care that takes into account not only primary care but also social care and mental health.
• Increase funding to GP services to ensure patients can access the care they need.
• Halt pharmacy cuts and review provision to ensure all patients have access to pharmacy services, particularly in deprived or remote communities in our city.

Don’t forget to let me know your thoughts or opinions below!

Tory Jeremy Hunt, gets paid an additional £134,565 a year (on top of his MP salary) for being Secretary of State for Health!