POLITICS OF NEED NOT POLITICS OF GREED

Trish fights for Healthcare

Press release

BLAENAU Gwent Assembly member Trish Law has protested to Health Minister Edwina Hart about the time it takes kidney patients in her constituency to travel to and from Newport for lifesaving dialysis treatment.

Mr Neil Herbert, a 71-year-old constituent, has to get up at 5.30 am three days a week to be collected at 6.30am for the trip to St Woolos Hospital, Newport.

He does not get home to Blaina until about 2.30pm on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays - some three hours after his treatment finishes.

Mrs Law told the Gwent Gazette that it was unacceptable that Mr Herbert and another Blaina patient she is representing spent so much time on the road or waiting for the ambulance car to turn up.

"It's enough of an ordeal for an elderly person to have to undergo renal dialysis treatment without prolonging the agony with lengthy delays in hospital or on the road," she said.

"The ambulance car usually has to take a long detour to pick up or drop off other patients.
"I have written to the Ambulance Trust to see if transport arrangements for these patients can be improved and I have brought my concerns to the attention of the health minister.

"I have also raised the issue with the Gwent Local Health Board which is endeavouring to establish how many patients from Blaenau Gwent have to travel to Newport for renal dialysis."

Mrs Law said the minister, Edwina Hart, had expressed her wish to see that renal patients received care as near to their homes as possible.

In a letter to the Independent AM, Mrs Hart said: "I recognise that some patients have to travel unacceptable distances for dialysis several times a week.

"I am keen to ensure that renal patients receive their care as locally as possible as part of a comprehensive dialysis service.

"The National Service Framework published in April this year by the Assembly Government states that patients must have access to a dialysis unit within 30 minutes travel time from their home with a flexible and responsive transport system. This standard will, however, take time to implement in full."

The minister revealed that an Assembly Government advisory group had recommended that dialysis facilities needed to be provided in North Gwent in addition to those provided in Newport.

She added: "The work to determine how services at the Ysbyty Aneurin Bevan will be arranged is part of Gwent Healthcare NHS Trust's Clinical Futures Programme.

"I will be expecting the trust to ensure that dialysis provision across the whole of Gwent is delivered based on the Renal Advisory Group recommendations.

"In addition, I will be raising the issues related to the provision and coordination of dialysis patient transport with the Welsh Ambulance Service when we next meet."

The Kidney Wales Foundation recently described the state of renal care in Wales as "Third World".

HEALTH Minister Edwina Hart has been called on to intervene to prevent one of three ambulances being withdrawn from Blaenau Gwent.

The Blaenau Gwent Assembly member, Trish Law, warned today that withdrawing an ambulance from Aberbeeg was literally a matter of life and death.

She told the Argus/Gwent Gazette that one of the three ambulances operating in Blaenau Gwent was often snarled up at the Royal Gwent Hospital, Newport, waiting to transfer patients to the accident and emergency department.

“Through no fault of the personnel, response times of the ambulance service in Blaenau Gwent are disappointing as it is,” she said.

“Sadly, I get the impression that the Welsh Ambulance Services NHS Trust is more interested in saving money than saving lives. Otherwise, why else would they propose removing an ambulance from Blaenau Gwent?

“I have written to Edwina Hart urging her to intervene to protect the ambulance service in Blaenau Gwent.”

Barry Taylor, a former Gwent ambulanceman and spokesman for ambulance personnel in the north of the county, said it would be foolhardy to withdraw one of the three ambulances stationed in Blaenau Gwent – two in Aberbeeg and one in Tredegar.

“While I and ambulance personnel in Blaenau Gwent generally welcome the on-going modernisation programme we have serious reservations about the withdrawal of a third of the ambulance fleet in Blaenau Gwent,” he said.

Mrs Law said she had received a number of reports of unacceptably long delays in ambulances arriving at the scene of accidents.

“And official figures bear out these reports of disappointing response times in Blaenau Gwent,” she said.

With the exception of Monmouthshire, which has obvious geographical issues, Blaenau Gwent has the worst response times to life-threatening emergencies in South East Wales, according to the latest available quarterly figures.

They show that Blaenau Gwent has the second worst response rates in Wales in the case of Category B calls – other emergencies.

And Blaenau Gwent’s performance for ‘urgent journeys’ where a definite time is imposed is the worst in Wales.

“These figures support the theory that now is definitely not the time to be talking of withdrawing an ambulance from Blaenau Gwent,” said Mrs Law.

© Bruintech 2006