Burnham demands protection for vulnerable patients (Eleanor Burnham )

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Eleanor Burnham <info@eburnham.org.uk>

Burnham demands protection for vulnerable patients

January 17, 2007 2:02 PM

Eleanor Burnham AM today demanded to know what Health Minister Brian Gibbons and the Labour Assembly Government is doing to protect some of North Wales' most vulnerable NHS patients from cancelled operations at the last minute.

Ms Burnham, Welsh Liberal Democrat Assembly Member for North Wales, raised her concerns following an incident at one major North Wales hospital in which an elderly patient suffered a cancelled cancer operation at five o' clock in the morning because the hospital needed their ICU bed for an emergency.

Ms Burnham said: "With the ongoing reconfiguration of NHS services in the North, it is easy to see why many people are worried that they may not get the treatment they need on time. This is made worse by cases like this, in which our most vulnerable our being turned away seconds before being taken into surgery.

"It's a distressing thought that patients and their families, many with serious medical conditions, are facing the uncertainty of being ready for surgery one minute and then let down at the last opportunity.

"The hospital in question suffers like many others from a desperate lack of ICU beds, which means that patients are being turned out and told to come back another day at the drop of a hat. It seems to me emergency services in North Wales are stretched to breaking point.

When asked to reply Dr Gibbons said that while the Welsh Assembly Government was working closely with local NHS trusts to bring cancellation rates down, up to 30-50% of the time cancellations happened because patients did not turn up for their treatment.

In response Ms Burnham said: "Clearly cancelled operations like the one in question are not down to patients failing to arrive for treatment, but are the result of an over-stretched NHS. Emergency treatment is risking the lives of those who have been waiting for serious operations of their own.

"We need answers on this distressing issue and so I will be writing to Dr Gibbons about the situation in North Wales and I intend to discover just how much of a difference the government's plans are making to patients across the region."

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