Tag: hospitals
Doctor says hospitals are so overrun they are struggling more than medical centres in warzone
Now experts want the Army to reopen Covid NIGHTINGALE hospitals to prop up the failing NHS
Big Nonprofit Hospitals Expand in Wealthier Areas, Shun Poorer Ones
Since 2001, half the hospitals divested by CommonSpirit Health, a large Catholic system based in Chicago, were in communities where the poverty rate was above the medians for state hospital markets, compared with 30% of those it added. At Bon Secours Mercy Health, formed by the 2018 merger of two growing regional nonprofits, about 42% of hospitals it divested were in areas with higher poverty, compared with 27% of hospitals it added. Of hospitals divested or closed by St. Louis-based Ascension, about half were located in higher-poverty areas, compared with 40% of the Catholic system’s acquisitions.
At the same time, many top nonprofits were moving more aggressively to add hospitals in more affluent areas. At Mercy, a St. Louis-based hospital nonprofit, 56% of new hospitals were in places with lower poverty rates, compared with 25% of those it shed. About two-thirds of the hospitals it added were in markets where the share of households with incomes of at least $200,000 was above the state median. That compared with 25% of those the system shed. Of hospitals acquired by Florida-based AdventHealth, nearly two-thirds were in low-poverty areas, compared with 40% of those they divested. And 59% had a larger share of higher-income households, compared with 40% of those they exited.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Hospitals told to free up beds for ambulance strike
Hospitals in England pay £5,200 for one agency doctor’s shift
How the NHS is using ‘virtual wards’ and smartphones to clear beds at hospitals operating at near capacity
Doctors raise safety fears at Birmingham hospitals
Top hospitals targeted by nurse strikes
Army could be called in to drive ambulances and staff hospitals under emergency plan to save the NHS from winter strikes
THE Army could drive ambulances and stand in for frontline hospital roles under emergency plans to deal with a possible winter of strikes.
Health and defence officials are drawing up a contingency strategy as ambulance drivers and paramedics consider joining nurses on the picket lines in the coming months.
The Army could drive ambulances during possible winter strikes[/caption]
The Army was also called in during the last ambulance drivers’ walkout in 1989[/caption]
As first reported by the Times, the Government could utilise the military aid to the civil authorities protocol (Maca) to keep key services in the NHS running during major walkouts.
They could also answer 999 calls, in addition to other tasks, the Guardian reported earlier this month.
Maca was used during the coronavirus pandemic to help struggling health staff with vaccines, testing and the delivery of protective equipment.
No formal request for help has been made by the Department of Health and Social Care to the Ministry of Defence.
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The last time ambulance drivers went on strike from September 1989 to February 1990, the army, navy and air force all helped to transport patients for medical attention.
Earlier this week union bosses insisted cancer care will not be stopped for nurses’ strikes.
A Government spokeswoman said: “We are working with the NHS on a range of options to manage disruption to health and care services during industrial action.
“Hospitals will do everything they can to ensure patients and the public are kept safe, however planned appointments may need to be cancelled and emergency care prioritised to those in need of urgent care only.”
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The prospect of strikes being called off ahead of Christmas appeared bleak, as Transport Secretary Mark Harper said public sector pay rises in line with soaring inflation are “unaffordable”.
The Cabinet minister said there “simply isn’t the money” to meet the demands of workers preparing to take industrial action but hinted at progress in talks over rail strikes.
Mr Harper indicated a change in the mandate for negotiations and said pay rises could come if rail workers accept reforms, after holding “positive” talks with Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union general secretary Mick Lynch.
Nurses are set to stage their first UK-wide strike action next month, as they join transport and postal workers on the picket lines in disputes over pay and conditions.
Mr Harper told Sky’s Sophy Ridge On Sunday programme: “Inflation-matching or inflation-busting pay rises are unaffordable.
“I think we want to try and give all the workers in the public sector who work very hard decent pay rises, but they can’t be inflation-busting pay rises.
“There simply isn’t the money to pay for those given the context, we haven’t seen those in the private sector either, the private sector pay rises have generally been settled below the level of inflation, which I accept is difficult for people.”
He told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg that rail bosses “will have the ability to reach a deal”, when pressed about whether they have the mandate to properly negotiate with the RMT.
“But we have to be able to have that reform package negotiated, because it’s only that that throws up the savings,” Mr Harper said.
“I do not have a bottomless pit of taxpayers’ money to throw at this problem.”
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Royal College of Nursing (RCN) members in England, Wales and Northern Ireland will walk out on December 15 and 20 if the dispute is not resolved.
Health Secretary Steve Barclay has urged the nursing union to “come back to the table” for talks but he is declining to discuss pay, instead wanting to talk about conditions such as pension arrangements, holidays, rosters and the availability of free coffee.