PATIENTS at Scarborough Hospital's A&E unit are having to be left on ambulance stretchers and "parked in inappropriate places" because there are not enough beds, say senior members of staff. It is leading to delays in patients being treated and ambulance crews unable to answer emergency calls because they have to wait for their equipment, it is claimed.

Mick Grant, lead nurse in the A&E department, says it is happening on an almost daily basis.

The problem means patients are not being seen within the Government's four-hour target.

He said: "The Government's four-hour "target" starts from the moment a patient is booked into A&E until they are discharged from our care by being sent home or admitted on to a hospital ward."

The A&E department sees around 100 patients a day at weekends and about 80 a day between Monday and Friday.

"Of the patients we treat around 22 per cent need further care and are admitted on to a hospital ward," said Mr Grant.

"The problem is there often isn't a bed for them to go to. That means they have to stay in the cubicle where we've treated them and that in turn means patients who have been brought in by ambulance can't be transferred from the stretcher into one of our beds.

"We're aware of the pressures that ambulance crews are under. We live in a very rural area and obviously ambulances need to travel longer distances at times.

"That's why we always try to turn crews round as quickly as possible but they can be kept waiting for considerable periods of time."

A spokesman for Scarborough Health Trust denied ambulance crews were kept waiting for any length of time.

"He said: "It is not an exceptional problem but when it does happen they're only likely to be kept waiting for about 10 minutes. I only know of one occasion where two ambulance crews were kept waiting at the same time."
The News two weeks ago???

No beds , so Patients had to go to Bridlington Hospital

HEALTH bosses were forced to send patients down the coast to Bridlington Hospital because there were no beds left at Scarborough Hospital. They say the problem arose because the Haldane Ward and the Duke of Kent children's ward at Scarborough had to be closed for improvements.

However, the shortage of beds should ease because the Haldane Ward has now been reopened. But the children's ward will not be operational again until towards the end of this month.

The potentially lethal bacteria Legionella pneumophila, which can develop into Legionnaire's disease, was discovered in July in the water supply to the Haldane and Duke of Kent wards.

Chris Coombs, hospital trust board secretary, said: “At this time of year it is not unusual to experience increased pressure on bed spaces

Mick Pilling ( writes ) chairman Save Bridlington Hospital Campaign Action Group

With an extreme shortage of staff at Bridlington Hospital, no overtime, recruitment ban, morale at an all time low, canteen closed from 2pm, its a disgusting state!

The above two stories come at a time when the Scarborough NHS Trust plans to remove the 6 Bed (CMU) Cardiac Monitoring Unit & a 30 bed ward from the Acute Medical Services in Bridlington Hospital.

It's plain to see that Scarborough hospital cannot cope, it's time now to scrap Trust plans and get there own house in order.

Bridlington Ambulance Service cannot cope with the amount of Emergency calls it receives each day, ambulances that travel to Scarborough hospitals A&E end up coming back with blue's & two's in operation, held up at Scarborough A&E is an every day problem; solution; take more patients to Bridlington hospital thus easing emergency services.

If (EYAS) East Yorkshire Ambulance Service does not meet Government response times then we feel Scarborough NHS Trust should be held responsible, how long will it be before lives are lost?

Mick Pilling