18
Apr 2018
NHS staffing crisis leaves more than 1,400 hospital beds empty
Figures obtained through freedom of information have revealed that 82 wards across the NHS have been moth-balled due to a lack of funding, enough to fill two hospitals.
The number of empty beds in September 2017 had tripled in four years, 1,429 compared to 503 in September 2013.
The Society for Acute Medicine’s president, Dr Nick Scriven, said the current situation was “almost always caused by not having enough money or staff.
“These findings will not surprise any clinical staff in the NHS. It reflects issues around staffing hospitals safely – in any equation the biggest cost is staff.
“In years and years of trying to balance books and achieve ‘efficiency’ savings, many hospitals will have taken the opportunities to shut clinical areas if they at all can.”
Jonathan Ashworth, Labour’s health spokesman, said “This is a time of national crisis for our NHS. We’ve had patients stuck on trolleys in hospital corridors and log-jammed A&E wards for hours and hours on end.”
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Posted by Karen Motley, Paralegal, Clinical Negligence Department, Chadwick Lawrence LLP (karenmotley@chadlaw.co.uk), medical negligence lawyers and clinical negligence solicitors in Huddersfield, Leeds, Wakefield and Halifax, West Yorkshire.
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