THE boss of the health trust which runs Colchester Hospital met with the Shadow Health Secretary on Friday, days before nurses are due to walk out on strike.
Nick Hulme, the chief executive of the East Suffolk and North Essex Foundation Trust (ESNEFT) welcomed Wes Streeting and Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves to the hospital, which has received a draft CQC report detailing how staffing was under major strain.
Inspectors found health workers had been put under insurmountable pressure due to low staffing levels, with some breaking down in front of inspectors when discussing the level of care they were providing.
When asked about the situation being faced by the trust, and the NHS more generally, Mr Hulme admitted he has grave concerns after having seen the limits to which staff are being pushed to provide safe care.
He said: “I’m worried about the current situation – more worried than I ever have been – because of the level of activity we are seeing in hospitals, and I am worried about the future of the NHS if this continues.
"It’s simply not sustainable.
“Is it safe at the moment? Just.
“Are we making compromises for care every day? Yes, we are.
“They’re safe compromises but we can’t go on like that – it’s not the future of the NHS I’m concerned about, it’s about how quickly we can transform the existing NHS to recognise the change in demands, and therefore provide safe care to our patients.”
Latest figures for ESNEFT hospitals found nearly 4,000 people have been waiting longer than a year for treatment, with another 65,000 currently on the trust's waiting lists.
Patients at accident and emergency departments are also facing waits which breached targets, with 9,324 patients having to wait more than four hours to be admitted to A&E last month.
Strikes on the horizon
Nurses at Colchester Hospital are due to go on strike on Wednesday and Thursday in a dispute over pay and conditions.
Despite criticising the Government over its health record, however, Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting said neither Labour nor the Conservatives would be able to meet nurses’ demands and offer a 19 per cent pay rise.
He said: “I wish I could promise we could give them 19 per cent overnight, but the truth is the Conservatives have left the public finances in such a mess that we wouldn’t be able to do it.
“What we would be prepared to do is sit down and negotiate with staff to get a pay deal now that is achievable.
“[The pay rise won’t be] 19 per cent now, but we would be prepared to look at what we can do as the economy grows.”
Mr Streeting added the Colchester Parliamentary constituency, which is currently held by Conservative MP Will Quince, will be a key seat in deciding the outcome of the next General Election.
Mr Quince, a Health Minister, currently has a majority close to 10,000.
Wes Streeting said: “I’m asking people to judge Labour on our record and our plan for the future.
“Colchester is one of those constituencies that will decide after the next General Election – it’s a marginal battle, and people in Colchester will have a lot of power.”
Will Quince, who has been MP for Colchester since 2015, is expected to stand for the Conservatives again when an election is next held, with Pam Cox to stand for Labour.
Funding increase not the answer
Health trust boss Nick Hulme said an increase in funding is not the answer to the healthcare crisis.
When asked whether greater investment was the answer to improving the quality of care, Mr Hulme said the allocation of funding needed to be rectified.
He said: “It’s not just a question of more money, it’s a question of investing properly in the right staff for the right place and making sure we look at the system so we make sure the patients who don’t need to be in hospital could be cared for somewhere else.
“[Then] we can release those staff managing the escalation beds to get back to their base wards.”
Mr Hulme added although Colchester Hospital has added 85 beds to its capacity, staffing has not managed to keep up.
“We have to move staff around constantly in order to fill those gaps on rotas.
“It’s exactly the same as every other hospital up and down the country, and so we do our best every day to make sure all of our wards are safely staffed.”
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