- PRESSURE is mounting on Coventry s Walsgrave Hospital after it emerged
that junior doctors are working more than their contracted 56 hours per week.
And documents leaked to the Advertiser discuss the imminent risk of the
withdrawal of these posts from the Trust as early as December.
Rugby Advertiser 15 November 2001
- A friend tells me (February 2002) that a successful triple bypass
operation at Walsgrave Hospital in Coventry was marred when he picked up an
MRSA infection that has not healed. Hospital procedures need to
eliminate all sources of infection.
- A RUGBY mother has vowed never to return to the Walsgrave Hospital after
she developed an infection following surgery.
Rugby Advertiser 07 August 2003
- THE FAMILY of a Rugby man who was left lying in his own mess by nurses as
he recovered from an operation have made grave claims that neglect at
Walsgrave Hospital contributed to his death. Harold George Prestidge, 82, died
on March 6, a month after a successful operation to remove bowel cancer. He
developed septicaemia and died of bronchial pneumonia. His family has
highlighted a series of major blunders and questions about the aftercare he
received.
Rugby Advertiser 29th April 2004.
- A RUGBY family are desperately searching for answers after their mum
mysteriously died following a routine operation. Care worker and
mother-of-three Susan Furniss, 47, had no health problems when she went to
Walsgrave Hospital for a standard hysterectomy but suddenly fell ill after the
operation and died just two days later. The Furniss family, from New Bilton,
have been told that her death is a complete mystery and an inquest verdict
could take at least three months.
Rugby Advertiser 23 June 2005
- 'Teething
problems' making nurses sick. More than 20 nurses have quit their jobs
since the new University Hospital in
Coventry opened a month ago. Stressed staff say they are leaving because
of problems at the £400 million
PFI hospital at Walsgrave. They claim there is a shortage of staff, morale
is low, the building is too hot and there is nowhere for nurses to change. One
nurse, who would only give her name as Louise, said: "The morale at the new
hospital is terrible, the place is a shambles, and a lot of staff are leaving
and not always being replaced."
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Coventry Evening Telegraph 10 August 2006
- Ward shuts at
new hospital. Bosses at
Coventry's new University
Hospital have announced plans to close a ward and axe 24 beds - just six
months after it opened. Ward 33a is to close down under the plans, which will
save the hospital trust about £400,000, and the staff and patients will be
spread around other wards. But staff and union officials have accused hospital
management of failing to think through the plans, which could come in to force
as early as February 1. And they say mixing the wards is a potential disaster,
as it could see cases of superbug MRSA rocket at University Hospital, which
has until now had a good record for the bug. Charlie Sarrell, regional officer
for Unison, said: "They're closing ward 33a and shunting everybody to 22 and
32, and one of our main concerns is that services will be lumped in together,
and this could be dangerous. This is not good clinical practice. Management
are taking the view that there can be fewer beds if there's a faster
throughput of surgical patients, but surgical beds are used when there is an
over-flow of clinical patients, so where will they go
? There are no redundancies indicated but we are concerned about the
disruption to staff and the fact that the management seem to be rushing this
through. There will be more pressure on staff, consultants will be expected to
be more available and nurses could end up discharging patients, which is not
their job." One nurse affected by the closure, who asked not to be named, said
she was worried that nurses were being asked to reapply for their jobs. She
said: " We've been told we have to reapply for our own jobs within a week.
They told us there were going to be bed closures and it was for economic
reasons." Acting director of nursing Dr Ann-Marie Cannaby said: "We are not
making any nurses redundant. A small number of nurses will have to work on a
different ward but they are being asked for their preference as to where they
would like to work."
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of Coventry
Evening Telegraph 19 January 2007
- NHS admits 17
trusts are mired in debt. The Department of Health last night named 17 NHS
hospital trusts across England which are mired in debts worth hundreds of
millions of pounds and cannot survive without a fundamental reorganisation.
David Nicholson, the NHS chief executive, said 12 were not creditworthy enough
to be lent money from government funds to cover an accumulated deficit at the
end of the financial year last month. Five were permitted to take out loans,
but acknowledged they could be repaid only over "a very extended timescale".
His announcement was the first official confirmation of a Guardian inquiry in
December which found at least a dozen trusts were technically bankrupt, with
no prospect of repaying debts. The department removed Good Hope hospital in
Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands, from its financial sick list after making
arrangements in March for it to be taken over by Heart of England NHS
foundation trust, with hospitals in east Birmingham and Solihull. The
government hopes similar takeovers can be organised to rescue others on the
list of 17, but they may not be suitable in every area and some facilities may
have to close. The 13 trusts that could not afford to repay debts were:
Hinchingbrooke Health Care in Huntingdon;
Mid Yorkshire; Queen Mary's, Sidcup,
Kent; Royal
Cornwall; Royal Wolverhampton;
Coventry & Warwickshire; West Middlesex; Weston Area Health,
Weston-super-Mare; and three
London trusts - Barking, Havering and Redbridge; Bromley; and Queen
Elizabeth, Woolwich. The five that could not repay loans in the foreseeable
future were: North Bristol; Royal United hospital, Bath; Surrey and Sussex
Healthcare; the Royal West Sussex; and Whipps Cross, London. John Carvel,
social affairs editor
Thursday April 26, 2007 The Guardian
- Jobs freeze
remains at superhospital.
Coventry's University Hospital at Walsgrave, which was funded through the
Private Finance Initiative, is facing a £15m shortfall this year. As a result,
a recruitment freeze is set to continue and a range of other savings is being
investigated, partly to pay for the cost of building the hospital under PFI.
The hospital is now planning to take a loan from the NHS to tide it over into
the next financial year. Hospital trust chairman Phil Townshend said: "There
is no point in us seeking a loan that we are unable to repay. It follows that
we will have to make cost efficiencies in the region of £15 million but it
needs to be borne in mind that this represents approximately less than five
per cent of the trust's annual spend. There are areas that are costing us a
lot of money where savings can and must be made." The trust is planning to
make savings by modifying the way in which pathology and pharmacies are run
across the area's hospitals and tackling the problem of bed blocking. Mr
Townshend also promised to cut management costs. Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of Coventry
Evening Telegraph 1 June 2007
-
The 17 NHS trusts
categorised as "financially challenged".
Barking, Havering and Redbridge Hospitals; Bromley Hospitals;
Hinchingbrooke Health Care;
Mid Yorkshire Hospitals; North
Bristol; Queen Elizabeth Hospital; Queen Mary's Sidcup; Royal
Cornwall Hospitals; Royal United Hospital Bath; Royal
Wolverhampton Hospital; The Royal West
Sussex; University Hospitals
Coventry & Warwickshire; West
Middlesex University; Weston Area Health; Whipps Cross University Hospitals.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of Times
6 June 2007
-
Hospital calls in
financial experts. Experts are to be called in to help new PFI built
University Hospital at Walsgrave balance its books. The move comes as
unions await news on whether more jobs will be lost as the trust battles to
save £30m. 189 posts have been axed in the last 18 months. The trust is one of
18 described as "financially challenged" by the NHS's Director General of
Finance and Investment, Richard Douglas. Despite apparently breaking even this
year and last, the trust is one of 13 not considered credit worthy by the
government. However, University Hospital can get "public dividend capital" -
essentially a loan without a regular repayment schedule.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of Coventry
Evening Telegraph 12 June 2007
-
Outrage. Moves to
impose charges of up to £10 a day for parking at
Coventry's University Hospital have sparked anger in Coventry and
Warwickshire. Visitors and patients can currently park for 200 minutes for free.
However this will be scrapped from September the 1st and prices will start from
£3 for the first two hours, up to £10 for over six hours. Even disabled blue
badge holders will now have to pay. Fees for the disabled were scrapped just
nine months ago by chief executive David Roberts after a 6,000 strong petition.
However his successor, Martin Lee, has persuaded board members let him impose
new charges, saying medical services would have to be cut if he was not allowed
to. All the money from parking goes to a private company as part of the private
finance initiative deal to build the hospital.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of Coventry
Evening Telegraph 8 August 2007
-
Charity steps in to
parking battle. A Coventry charity has joined the battle against increased
parking charges and the end of free parking for disabled people at
University Hospital in
Walsgrave.
Coventry Carers' Centre, in City Arcade, is the latest organisation to slam
the decision to charge patients and their relatives up to £10 a day and £3 for
up to two hours to park from September 1. A petition has been launched calling
for a U-turn on the charges. New hospital chief executive Martin Lee says he has
to raise the money to meet requirements of a contract drawn up under a private
finance initiative when the hospital was built. Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of Coventry
Evening Telegraph 17 August 2007
-
200 hospital jobs to
go to save £10m. A further 200 administrative jobs are to be axed at
Coventry's University
Hospital to save £10m, in addition to the 116 posts shed over the last 18
months. Human resources, IT and finance, will be affected, as will directors.
The trust which runs the hospital and the Hospital of St Cross in Rugby is
struggling to make savings of £30m by the end of the financial year, and has
already identified £20m of savings through more efficient working practises and
a renegotiating the price of supplies. Chief executive Martin Lee said: "This is
not a position I wanted us to be in and every endeavour has been, and will
continue to be, made to find the savings from elsewhere. But it is clear that,
with the exception of cutting services, the only major area left within which to
make significant savings towards the £10 million, within the timescale, is post
reduction. We had thought we might be looking at as many as 375 posts but after
considerable work to explore other savings, we are now hopeful we will be able
to reduce this figure to around 200.Patients can be reassured that our priority
is to ensure we continue to deliver safe clinical services for our patients.
That is why we will be looking primarily to reduce managerial, corporate and
administrative jobs." Trust bosses said they hoped to avoid compulsory
redundancies, but that they could not be ruled out. Mr Lee added: "if we are to
avoid cutting our core healthcare services, we have no choice but to resolve our
financial situation."
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of Coventry
Evening Telegraph 23 August 2007
-
Hospital staff told:
help slash the wage bill. Hospital bosses at the NHS trust responsible for
University Hospital in
Coventry and St Cross
in Rugby have launched a last ditch attempt to save £30m. The trust has given
almost all of its 6,000
staff
four options. These are voluntary redundancy; early retirement; a cut in hours;
or up to weeks extra unpaid holiday. The choice has been included in the wage
slip of every worker with a September 14th deadline. The letter, from the
trust's director of human resources, Kate Bradley, reads: "You are all aware of
the trust's financial position, in that we have to make £30 million savings by
March 2008. With every-one's help and support we have already identified £15
million of cost savings which are on target to be delivered. Another £5 million
in additional income has been secured, which leaves us with £10 million to
deliver. We are still exploring every possible avenue to make savings. But it is
clear that, with the exception of cutting services, the only major area to make
significant savings within the timescale is staffing costs, as this is our
biggest area of expenditure." Despite the offer, management is likely to target
specific areas, and some requests may be deemed inappropriate. The trust has
already proposed
increasing
parking charges and cutting 200 white-collar jobs. Union leaders fear
another 175 post may be lost to cut the trust's deficit.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of Coventry
Evening Telegraph 30 August 2007
-
Union's fears over a
leaner workforce. Unison representatives have spoken of their fears that
moves to slash the wage bill at
Coventry University Hospital, which is struggling with a £10m deficit, will
place remaining staff under additional pressure. Unison regional officer Charlie
Sorrell said: "The trade unions recognise there is a financial problem at the
trust and we have been in discussions with the trust for all of this year, if
not longer. We know something has to be done to get the trust's finances on an
even keel. What we are concerned about is that nobody is forced into doing
something they don't want to do. If people want to take up the option of
voluntary redundancy or early retirement, we will not object to that but we will
be watching those that remain working for the trust to make sure they are not
expected to pick up extra work." In a letter to staff the trust offered options
including voluntary redundancy, unpaid leave and early retirement in a bid to
slash its £17m per month wage bill. Mr Sorrell added: "If you have a department
of 50 people and one person decides to take two weeks off, it is a problem that
can probably be coped with. But if there is a department of 10 then it is a very
different picture. We are concerned that people are not faced with undue work
pressures as a result of this." Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of Coventry
Evening Telegraph 12 September 2007
-
Surgeons operate on wrong hip. A PATIENT from Rugby woke up after a
routine operation to discover that surgeons had started to operate on the wrong
hip. After being admitted for a hip operation, medical staff opened up the
woman's healthy hip on the operating table. They then quickly realised that they
were meant to treat the other hip. They were able to patch up their mistake and
complete the operation. But the woman, who we cannot name for legal reasons, has
been left with scars from the blunder. Representatives from the University
Hospital in Coventry have met with the family and apologised for the mistake,
which they said was down to 'human error'.
Rugby Advertiser 15
November 2007
Hospitals funded
through PFI are clearly unaffordable [see also
Mark Hellowell and Allyson Pollock
Wednesday September 12, 2007 Guardian]. This is illustrated by the University
Hospital Coventry and Warwickshire, funded through PFI, which was fully open for
most of 2006/07. See also George Monbiot
Tuesday September 4, 2007 The Guardian. While the Hospital Trust moved from break even in 2005/06
to an insignificant surplus of £0.1m, the Coventry and Warwickshire PCTs
increased their aggregate deficits from £3.2m to £14.4m according to annex 5 of
NHS financial performance 4th quarter 2006 07 DH_075228 (pdf).
A complication is that the other Warwickshire hospital trusts (which provide
about a third by value of the hospital services in Coventry and Warwickshire)
moved from an aggregate deficit of £21.1m to an aggregate surplus of £1.5m, but
this was associated with severe cutbacks in services.
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