Ellesmere Port’s MP and shadow health minister Justin Madders has teamed up with Cheshire West and Chester Council’s health chief Paul Dolan in an unprecedented call for action as the NHS winter crisis hits local hospitals

The leading Labour figures have joined forces to demand measures from the Government in a watershed moment ‘as local health services reach crisis point’.

Speaking in Parliament Mr Madders has challenged health secretary Jeremy Hunt on his handling of the crisis saying ‘the human cost of this crisis is devastating’.

Nick Laundy and David Matthews, the senior consultants running the A&E departments at the Countess of Chester and Mid Cheshire Hospitals, are among those who have written to Prime Minister Theresa May warning of ‘the very serious concerns we have for the safety of our patients’.

“This current level of safety compromise is at times intolerable, despite the best efforts of staff,” they argue.

The senior clinicians joined colleagues from a total of 68 hospitals in issuing the warning and also reported cases of patients dying on hospital corridors in some parts of the country.

In December 2015 Mr Madders shadowed Mr Laundy during a busy A&E shift. The MP now believes ‘the situation that our hospitals are now facing has deteriorated beyond recognition’.

Shadow health minister Justin Madders (Lab), MP for Ellesmere Port and Neston, spent a night shift in A&E at the Countess of Chester Hospital in 2015
Shadow health minister Justin Madders (Lab), MP for Ellesmere Port and Neston, spent a night shift in A&E at the Countess of Chester Hospital in 2015

In December 2017 the main A&E department at the Countess of Chester is said to have seen 27.2% of patients waiting longer than four hours to be seen.

At Leighton Hospital in Crewe the figure was 32.9%; against national guidelines the figure should be no higher than 5% according to Cheshire West Labour which describes the figures as ‘the worst on record’.

The group also points to research last September by independent health think-tank the King’s Fund which found the NHS in England currently has fewer acute beds relative to its population than almost any other similar health system.

There have been reports during the winter of some A&E departments across the country reaching 100% bed occupancy says Cheshire West Labour.

Mr Madders and Cllr Dolan, a trades unionist, are calling for the Government to ‘urgently intervene’ to increase the number of beds that are available for acute care.

They believe a lack of available beds is one of the key causes of delays at A&E as well as patients being treated on hospital corridors and in the back of ambulances waiting outside of hospitals.

The politicians are also calling for ‘an urgent and significant increase’ in social care funding to allow patients who are medically fit to be discharged from acute beds to be cared for in the community.

They lay the blame for the current situation at the door of Mr May and Mr Hunt who they claim ‘have been warned time and time again about the worsening crisis on their watch and have failed to act’.

Moving forward they warn that without a ‘significant’ funding increase the NHS will be unable to continue functioning in the way that it has done previously and could face an even bigger crisis in the coming years.

After shadowing Mr Laundy Mr Madders praised the efforts of staff but concluded by saying: “My night in A&E convinced me that if we are to have a successful NHS in the future then we must be prepared to properly resource it.”

Cllr Paul Dolan (Lab)
Cllr Paul Dolan (Lab)

Cllr Dolan says: “Despite the best efforts of our tireless NHS staff patients in this area are being badly let down by a system that is completely unable to cope with the demand that is being placed upon it.

“The sight of patients being treated on hospital corridors used to be something we would only see in the event of a disaster but this winter it has been a routine situation. This is unsafe and unacceptable.

“We have been warning this Conservative government for years that we would reach crisis point if they failed to change course but they have not taken any meaningful action.

“It is clear that the responsibility for the deeply concerning situation that we are now facing lies squarely at the door of Theresa May and Jeremy Hunt.

“The Government has slashed social care budgets time and time again while clinicians and experts were warning of what the consequences would be for our hospitals. “Combined with a continued reduction in the number of acute beds we have reached a perfect storm where the NHS simply does not have the capacity to cope.”

He adds: “There is little doubt that the current crisis afflicting the NHS been has aggravated by the £6bn cut to adult social care since 2010/11.”

Mr Madders commented: “When I worked a shift at the Countess of Chester during the winter two years ago I saw a service where the staff worked incredibly hard with no breathing space but were just about coping thanks to their incredible efforts.

“The situation that our hospitals are now facing has deteriorated beyond recognition and I am deeply concerned about the impact on patients.

“The worst part is that all of this could have been prevented if the Conservative government had listened to what thousands of staff, the Labour Party and independent experts across the NHS have been telling them for the past seven years.

“We have known for years that more people are attending A&E because they are not getting the treatment that they need from elsewhere in the system due to a squeeze on funding.

“We also know that people are being kept in hospital for too long because cuts to the social care system mean that they cannot be safely discharged.

“Above all else we cannot forget the human cost of this crisis. Behind every statistic that we hear about a cancelled operation or someone being treated in a corridor there is a person with a family and friends facing what is already often a deeply distressing situation.

“Thousands of people in this area are being left in potentially unsafe situations and I hold this Conservative government responsible.”