North East Cambridgeshire MP Steve Barclay visits Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital
Government minister Steve Barclay has been urged to find a solution to the region's pressured healthcare system during a visit to Norfolk.
Following a tour of the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital's emergency department, the health secretary was presented with an open letter expressing concerns about the state of healthcare in the county.
He was asked to respond in writing in the coming weeks to the concerns raised, which include overcrowding, crumbling hospital buildings, an overworked ambulance service and a mental health trust in disarray.
Asked if the NHS in Norfolk can cope with a lengthy waiting lists, threats of a nurse strike and Covid this winter, the North East Cambridgeshire MP said the pandemic had "shown the resilience of the NHS".
He continued: "But we're also very aware that there are further challenges coming down the track in terms of flu, Covid and other challenges as well.
"That is why we have expanded the cohort we will make flu and Covid booster jabs available to, that would apply to the over 50s.
"We have been working intensively over the summer with NHS England to look at how we better integrate our health and social care."
One area Mr Barclay said needed focus was "delayed discharge" - or bed blocking - where people are fit to leave hospital but unable to do so, which he said had a knock-on impact on emergency departments and ambulance waiting times.
Earlier this week, Liz Truss, the South West Norfolk MP who is the current favourite to become prime minister next month, said she would like to see cash moved from the NHS to social care.
While Mr Barclay did not say whether now was an appropriate time to move the cash around, he argued delays in discharging patients highlighted the need for integrating health and social care, and he has been speaking with various groups in Norfolk about how to better connect the two.
However, Prof Erika Denton, the N&N's medical director, said: "It does concern me; the NHS is not awash with spare money but we need to work as a system to spend the taxpayer pound really effectively and efficiently."
Prof Denton said she was also concerned about the number of patients on acute wards well enough to go home or into a care home.
She called for people to use the NHS when needed but also to think about how busy the service was and to help support family members when they could.
The letter to Steve Barclay said:
Dear Mr Barclay,
We are writing to you on behalf of the people of Norfolk and Waveney.
We wish to express our extreme concern about the current state of some health services in the region and seek assurances that central government is aware of the problems and actively doing something to resolve them.
Our readers and the wider community of the region are proud of the NHS and incredibly proud of the hard-working efforts of the many thousands of people who work within it.
However, over-worked staff and the patients that rely upon them are currently being let down by a service that is creaking at the seams. And for whatever reason the problems seem more pronounced in this part of the United Kingdom than many others.
Norfolk and Waveney is served by three main hospitals and those within them work wonders every single day. However, our main hospital, the Norfolk and Norwich, is full to bursting, struggling to keep up with demand and unable to provide the sort of service your government demands, largely through no fault of its own.
Our two other hospitals, the Queen Elizabeth and James Paget, are both in varying states of decay and in need of replacement. As you know, the situation is particularly dire in West Norfolk where the building is currently being held up by hundreds of props, whilst staff try to carry on their duties around them.
Our mental health services are arguably in an even more critical position, officially classed as 'inadequate', a position it has been in for much of the last decade, despite many changes at the top. Staff struggle to cope with massive caseloads, whilst patients face long waits to be seen and all too often trust failings are directly linked to fatalities. Nothing seems to be working in terms of putting it right and many argue the trust, which covers Suffolk and Norfolk, is simply too big to manage.
Our ambulance service also struggles, with long delays at hospitals meaning it often fails to reach patients as quickly as it should - or sometimes even at all. Increasingly taxis and even the police are being dispatched to transport patients to hospital.
Elsewhere, substandard social care provision and chronic staff shortages leads to bed blocking, further clogging up the system as a whole. Our GP and dental services also remain in disarray with many readers reporting to us problems getting to see a doctor or long waits to register for dental care.
On behalf of our readers and our community we urge you Mr Barclay and your government to address these issues as a matter of urgency. We would like not just a promise of improvements to these core services, but details of what is actually going to be done to make the changes needed.
The people of Norfolk and Waveney and those who work within the NHS deserve a better service than they are currently receiving. The lives of our loved ones are at stake, we need leadership from the top to turn these services around.
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