Tipping point of an ailing healthcare system
What you need to know:
- Six hospitals gave formal notice that they had reached crisis point, facing exceptional pressures and requiring emergency assistance from off-duty staff. Dr Cliff Mann said: “Hospitals are more crowded than ever, patients being treated on trolleys in corridors, ambulances queueing outside.”
- Some beds are blocked by elderly patients who would have no care available at home. In addition, the non-emergency helpline, 111, has recommended inquirers to seek help from their A&E departments when treatment is not available at local walk-in centres.
- The BBC told how back in 2008, Brewdog brewery in Scotland, owned by two friends, James Watt and Martin Dickie, was struggling.
Patients waiting 12 hours for attention or being treated on hospital trolleys; ambulances queuing up outside Accident and Emergency (A&E) departments; staff harassed and fatigued; non-emergency operations cancelled… these are all becoming regular scenes at many British hospitals.
Official figures show that the National Health Service missed its four-hour A&E maximum waiting time target between October and December, with performance dropping to its lowest level for 10 years. Some 92.6 per cent of patients were seen within four hours, against a target of 95 per cent.
Six hospitals gave formal notice that they had reached crisis point, facing exceptional pressures and requiring emergency assistance from off-duty staff. Dr Cliff Mann said: “Hospitals are more crowded than ever, patients being treated on trolleys in corridors, ambulances queueing outside.”
The government’s Department of Health gave the NHS a £700 million (Sh105 billion) winter injection to secure the services of thousands of extra doctors and nurses, as well as to make extra beds available.
Nevertheless, said Dr Mann: “We are reaching the tipping point.” A number of reasons are given for the crisis, without any clear overriding cause being evident: The population is growing older, GPs’ surgeries are often closed for several days at holiday times, some NHS workers are quitting for less demanding jobs and medical staff who have qualified in Britain are working abroad — at least 500 British doctors in Australia.
Some beds are blocked by elderly patients who would have no care available at home. In addition, the non-emergency helpline, 111, has recommended inquirers to seek help from their A&E departments when treatment is not available at local walk-in centres.
FLU OUTBREAK
In the hospitals’ favour is that the winter has been comparatively mild and there has been no flu outbreak or any similar epidemic. Nor, at least to date, has there been any large-scale accident or disaster.
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On a more optimistic note, the University of Oxford has suggested that HIV, which causes Aids, is evolving into something less deadly.
In order to survive the counter-offensive from the human immune system, the virus is being forced to make damaging mutations to itself. Scientists said the gradual “watering down” of HIV meant the virus was replicating more slowly and taking longer to cause Aids.
The conclusion was reached by means of a study involving Aids sufferers in Botswana.
Another good-news health story: For the first time a baby has been born from a transplanted womb.
The 36-year-old mother was born without a uterus but received a womb from a friend who had gone through menopause. The womb was transplanted for a year before doctors felt comfortable enough to attempt a pregnancy by implanting an embryo that had been produced through IVF.
PREMATURE BABY
A premature, but healthy, boy was born eight months later.
The achievement at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, raises hope for other women left without a functioning womb through cancer or because of birth defects.
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Founders of a small beer company desperately needed a second bank loan to expand production but they were already in debt. So how did they get it? They lied.
The BBC told how back in 2008, Brewdog brewery in Scotland, owned by two friends, James Watt and Martin Dickie, was struggling.
The owners were missing payments on the £20,000 (Sh2.7 million) bank loan they borrowed to start their business.
“We were selling a couple of cases of beer a day and losing money,” said Mr Watt.
But when they entered a competition organised by the Tesco supermarket chain, their beers won first, second, third and fourth places and Tesco ordered 2,000 cases a week.
With first deliveries due in four months, the owners went back to their bank for a new loan and got a resounding no.
WHAT TO DO
So they met another lender, lied that their bank had offered a good deal but they would switch if the new lender matched it. The lender said yes.
“You have got to do what you have to do,” said Mr Watt.
With the new money, they were able to increase staff and facilities and they met Tesco’s demands with bottles of Punk IPA. The beer was an immediate hit and other UK supermarkets joined in. Today, Brewdog employs 357 people, owns 25 bars and has a turnover of £32 million a year.
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A trainee joins a large multinational company and decides to make his mark by being assertive. He dials the kitchen and shouts, “Send me a cup of coffee immediately.”
An angry voice replies, “You idiot, you have called the wrong extension. Do you know who you’re talking to?”
“No,” says the trainee.
“This is the managing director!” The trainee shouts back, “And do you know who you are talking to?” “No,” says the MD. “Thank goodness,” says the trainee and puts the phone down.
