Stoke: Hospital care falling apart claim unions

Union officials are compiling an explosive report they say will expose a "gross deterioration" in patient care at the region's biggest hospital, according to The Sentinel.

Pat Powell, Unison branch secretary at the University Hospital of North Staffordshire, is working with other unions there to prepare a dossier of evidence about falling standards of patient care following financial cuts.

The allegations include:

... cuts in hospital cleaning leaving patients vulnerable to infections such as MRSA;

... bed shortages that have forced staff to put adults on a children's ward, and 10 beds into a bay designed for six;

... a lack of staff meaning some patients are unable to leave the ward for scans and treatment;

... cuts to physiotherapy services including the end of the paediatric outpatient service and cystic fibrosis service.

A hospital spokesman said the claims were an inaccurate reflection of the situation.

He added: "Some of the allegations are untrue.Others are based on unsubstantiated anecdote, are exaggerated, do not relate to cost cutting, or reflect best practice."

The allegations come as the Royal College of Nursing today revealed more than 22,300 NHS posts have been lost across the country in the last 18 months, of these 500 are from the University Hospital.

Mrs Powell told Sentinel Sunday the problems have been experienced by union members.

She said: "We know these things are happening and at the moment we are gathering in documentary evidence.

"We are collating the evidence through freedom of information requests to the trust on things we know are happening.

"We will then put it all together into a report."

She said all the health unions involved in NHS Together alliance were involved, including bodies representing doctors, nurses and ancillary staff.

Mark Young, North Staffordshire's regional officer for Amicus, which represents 300 workers at the hospital including laboratory staff, said he was also involved in the report.

He hopes it will show the Government that health service cuts are having a devastating impact on care in North Staffordshire.

He said: "The reality on patient care in Stoke-on-Trent is that patients' health is suffering because of these cuts.

"Patients might not notice their care is suffering, but there are a lot of underlying problems.

If the place isn't so clean because of staffing levels, if the beds aren't properly maintained in wards, if laboratory staff aren't able to turn round samples as quickly, then patient care is suffering.

"We want to show the Department of Health what these problems are. The difficulty we have is that people who work in the NHS have an ethos of public service so we often find that although staff are under greater stress because a colleague has been made redundant or not been replaced, they pick up the extra bit of work. "

Mrs Powell spoke out in a speech at the West Midlands NHS rally in Birmingham last month. In it, she blamed the University Hospital of North Staffordshire NHS Trust's decision to cut 1,000 jobs.