INTERNAL documents secured by the Mail on Sunday under the Freedom of Information Act, along with a report due to be issued later this week, prove conclusively that the headlong rush by the coalition to close down hospital A&E departments is a death sentence for seriously ill patients.
What these documents reveal is that the line peddled by the government, and by the few clinicians who support this policy, that closing A&E units and forcing patients to travel miles by ambulance to attend so-called specialist care units actually improves health care, is a complete lie.
The documents reveal that the vast majority of emergency patients will not benefit at all from attending a specialist unit and for the small minority (calculated at less than 10%) who might conceivably benefit, the extra time taken in travelling cancels any benefit out completely.
The report being unveiled this week is by Tim Rideout (former Chief Executive of Leicester NHS) who investigated the effect of A&E closures in North-West London where four A&E units are due to close leaving only one ‘urgent care centre’ run by GPs.
Many of these centres, which are supposed to give emergency care until an ambulance is available to rush patients off to these specialist centres, are not allowed to prescribe anything but the most basic, over-the-counter pain killers let alone provide any form of emergency relief to stabilise the patient.
This report states plainly that the remaining A&Es left in the area will simply be unable to cope with increased emergencies.
One such hospital, Northwick Park, is already over its capacity and has been forced to close its emergency unit to new patients one day in every ten.
In the past, those who cannot be admitted have been sent to Charing Cross Hospital which is now due to have its A&E unit closed.
What the documents secured by the Mail also reveal is that absolutely no provision has been made to increase the amount of ambulances available to ferry emergency patients around to these ‘super centres’.
Indeed, far from extra resources being made available to the ambulance service to try and make this disastrous plan work the government is demanding cuts to the tune of 4% a year over the next five years.
An NHS spokesman admitted to the paper that they have made no financial calculations about the effect of A&E closures, they are simply waiting for it to happen.
Already, the ambulance service is completely overstretched while existing cuts already mean that they rely on lone paramedics in cars to attend emergencies instead of fully equipped ambulances that can transport patients and provide treatment.
So the clear picture that emerges is that the closure of local A&E units will cause unnecessary deaths and all the cuts demanded by the government in the NHS will bring the entire hospital and ambulance service to the point of collapse.
None of this, of course, worries the government and the new health secretary Jeremy Hunt in the slightest.
Behind all the lies about ‘improving patient care’ is the all-consuming drive to smash up the NHS, lay waste to District General Hospitals, cut staffing and provision to the bone and open up the entire health service to privatisation.
There can be no changing the mind of this government, no amount of petitions or appeals will save a single A&E unit.
The only way to prevent closures is to set up Councils of Action in every area to organise the occupations of these units.
Above all, the NHS as a national health system can only be preserved by demanding that the unions stop thinking about a general strike and start one immediately to kick out this government and go forward to a workers’ government and socialism where a free health system for all is guaranteed.
