New national A&E guidance could be disastrous for Cumbria

I am deeply alarmed at suggestions that at least some some health authorities have been advised that the catchment area for NHS Accident and Emergency Units should be between 450,000 and half a millon people.

If applied in areas like Cumbria the impact of such a policy would be quite disastrous.

More details are given on my Hospitals Campaign blog: see link at right.

Comments

Matthew Cain said…
You might be interested that the Department of Health has dismissed some of the reports of this as complete nonsense. You can judge if its response in convincing here: http://newscounter.com/fullStory.jsp?id=458545
9:59 am
Chris Whiteside said…
Thanks. I have read the DoH response, and will post it on my hospitals blog.

What the Department of Health has dismissed as "nonsense" is the allegation that they have earmarked half of all A&E Departments for closure. I did not make the allegation that they had.

However, I note that the DoH have referred to a Royal College of Surgeons working party as suggesting in a consultation document the guidance on A&E catchment areas which formed the basis of the story.

It is a matter of simple mathematics that if this guidance were to be adopted and acted on, it would result in the closure of a large number of A&E departments. That makes the proposed guidance a matter of legitimate concern and debate. If it is only a consultation document at this stage, so much the better - because it means that making a fuss gives us a chance to kill hte guidance before it can be adopted.
12:51 pm
Anonymous said…
How on earth the DofH expect to have one unit per 450,000 in rural areas is amazing.
2:50 pm
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