Dispatches has been secretly filming inside the Shrewsbury & Telford Hospital’s (SaTH) A&E department. The footage, captured over months by an undercover journalist for Channel 4, exposes the suffering and dangers patients face on a daily basis.
Seriously ill patients left on chairs for days, others lying neglected on trolleys, and yet this is a hospital trust that has arguably had more support than so many others, thanks initially to the acute focus on its maternity services from the Ockenden Review and all the support that brought, then with government and NHS leaders’ ongoing scrutiny. (Chief Nurse, Dame Ruth May even visited earlier this month)
- So, if SaTH is this bad, how bad is your acute hospital trust?
- Presumably, Dispatches could have chosen any A&E department.
- Well, we shall see tomorrow…at 9pm on C4.
Meanwhile, the politicians who are canvassing for our votes have entirely failed to answer the fundamental question about how they will pull the NHS back from the brink of no return.
Yes, they all have policies and plans, robust statements proffered with a reassuring look of seemingly sincere (?) concern (apart from the “deeply unembarrassed racist” Farage who will give tax breaks to his mates who can afford to pay for their care). But if you try and make their assurances add up, they don’t.
And, whilst healthcare remains a devolved matter, and increasing inequalities affect life quality and expectancy even before it begins, don’t look away from what’s happening in the NHS in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland – it is OUR National Health Service. We fund it, therefore we should all be allowed to have a say in its future.
That’s just one of the many reasons you must vote on the 4th of July.
Until then, I’ll be watching Channel 4 tomorrow night and despairing that those of us who give so much to try and improve healthcare from the outside, can only watch in horror as it collapses from the inside.
If you want to add your voice to ours, please sign the petition. Depending on who gets into power, Kayleigh, Colin, Richard and I have been offered the opportunity to present to an all party parliamentary group (APPG) post-election to talk about our vision for improving maternity care - that's our vision for care from pre-conception right through early years' service provision for families in Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and England.
If the opportunity really does present itself, we'll be humbled to take your names and signatures with us.