Fife’s health service is being pushed to breaking point because Fife Council is “failing in its responsibility” to get people out of hospital.
That was the claim from a senior health chief as the full impact of the region’s bed-blocking crisis became apparent.
Staff being run ragged, operations cancelled at short notice due to a lack of beds, patients being ‘boarded’ to other wards, and dozens of patients waiting weeks to be discharged were among the issues highlighted by NHS Fife’s operational division committee chairman Dave Stewart, who pointed the finger of blame squarely at councillors in Fife House.
On the day plans to downgrade Victoria Hospital’s accident and emergency department to a minor injuries unit overnight and at weekends were progressed due to staffing problems, Mr Stewart said the rising numbers stuck in hospital through delayed discharge were stretching the health service to the limit.
And following the recent row over funding to alleviate the problem, Mr Stewart was firmly on the warpath on Wednesday, accusing the council of “appalling” behaviour and even suggesting the Scottish Government might need to intervene.
The health chief was speaking after a package totalling £224,000 split 50/50 was agreed by both the NHS and council before Christmas to try to tackle the issue.
However, that came after the council initially offered £250,000 from its reserves towards the problem, provided that was matched by NHS Fife to make it up to £500,000.
Mr Stewart told colleagues, “I want to make it absolutely clear that the responsibility for providing home care and care home packages lies with Fife Council but the way they are attempting to pass this off as if they were doing us a favour is lowlife politics.
“That’s not the kind of behaviour I expect from Fife councillors and I take serious exception to it.”
He added, “It would serve us better if we focus on the impact of their actions and some of the things I’ve found are well known but worth repeating.”‘Constant pressure’Mr Stewart said, “We have bed managers and staff under constant pressure trying to find beds for people and what we also have is patients boarded out into other wards and consultants having to go and find these patients because they are not where they should be.
“Not only is this a waste of valuable time and effort but it also poses a risk to our infection control procedures because we’ve got people moving between wards.”
He added, “One of the worst things to happen is patients being invited to attend hospital there’s always a degree of stress when you’ve got to psych yourself up to come in and then there’s the stress on the families as they’ve got to make arrangements.
“All that’s gone into, and then when they get to the door we tell them sorry, we can’t carry out the operations because we haven’t got the beds because we haven’t got patients discharged and that’s because Fife Council has failed in its responsibility.”
Mr Stewart said, “I can sit here and have another blast at Fife Council but I’m hopeful that after they hear the kind of stresses and strains we’re dealing with they’ll have the good grace to put in at least the £138,000 which seemed to disappear when it came to final negotiations.
“We might need government intervention to bring Fife Council to their senses and ask the cabinet secretary to investigate Fife Council’s appalling behaviour on the issue.”
The Courier was given a flavour of the situation during a visit to Victoria Hospital’s A&E earlier this week when staff were clearly rushed off their feet.
Indeed, one staff member said the lack of beds had even caused one patient to spend 23 hours waiting at Queen Margaret Hospital’s A&E in Dunfermline last week almost six times the four-hour standard set by the government.
With operations having to be cancelled due to a lack of beds, that will inevitably have a knock-on effect on other departments and services.
October figures confirmed there were 103 delayed discharges in Fife with 26 waiting over six weeks and 12 in short stay sites, although the short stay figure alone stood at 80 as of Wednesday.
Sixty-five patients were understood to be in delay in general beds at Queen Margaret and 11 in the Victoria, not taking into account other bed types, while 78 patients were also said to be ‘boarded’ not in the correct ward in Queen Margaret.
Mr Stewart also took exception to recent claims NHS Fife was trying to embarrass the SNP-Lib Dem administration, as well as a suggestion NHS Fife chairman Professor Jim McGoldrick had been “weak” in negotiations over funding.
He said, “I can assure members of the public that the colour or complexion of Fife Council is of no interest to me or my colleagues on the board.
“What I am interested in is their behaviour and their failure to support what we do here.”
Of Professor McGoldrick, he added, “When you’ve got a bunch of people with masks on pointing a pistol at your head, it’s not a good position to be in.”
Mr Stewart went on to say that he was looking into the possibility of sending patients a letter advising them of the delays and the council’s role in those, although he admitted he did not want to “burden the administration with more paperwork.”
“We’re in extraordinary times here and under extraordinary pressure,” he said.
Council leader Peter Grant said, “My understanding is that these are the personal views of one board member, not of NHS Fife.
“Elected politicians are of course entitled to express views on the organisations they have been elected to run but it can serve no useful purpose for politicians to indulge in ill-informed mud slinging against other public bodies who have their own direct accountability to the people of Fife.” He added, “The unprecedented financial pressures that the whole public sector is facing will mean that good relationships between partner organisations in Fife become more important than ever if we are to continue to look after the interests of the people whose interests we are all supposed to be looking after.”