A public meeting is being arranged on this urgent matter to discuss the situation in Ottery St Mary on 7 October – more details to follow.
In the meantime MP for the Ottery and Sidmouth area, Hugo Swire, has apparently said this is “not the time for whipping up excitement” and, on the bright side, means more time and space for clinics:
As yet there seems to be no comment from the area’s other MP, Neil Parish (cuts at Axminster Hospital).
East Devon Watch 
Not to mention all the new housing which will increase the number of residents and create even more overload.
On the news yesterday there were reports of someone dying in an ambulance stuck in a large queue at the A&E. How many people will die due to being turned away from hospitals due to lack of beds?
It seems to me that these bureaucrats want to run the hospitals like hotels – to aim for 100% occupancy. But if a hotel is full, you don’t die whilst you try to find a room elsewhere.
Not only do you need to plan to be 100% full only at peak times (allowing for large scale accidents etc.), but you also need to think about the stresses on staff if the hospital runs close to 100% for long periods. Yes, NHS staff are used to the stresses at peak periods, and they can cope with these when they are occasional – perhaps even when for a period they are frequent. But when hospitals run out of beds, the stresses become extreme, and when you run at 100% most of the time, the stress is persistent.
Having staff stressed most of the time and over-stressed part of the time is not sustainable – it will inevitably lead to staff illness, resignations, staff shortages, additional stress, and perhaps lower quality staff, more stress … possibly a vicious circle.
The reality is that either more money is needed, or we should cut the bureaucracy and focus the money we have on front-line services.
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The NHS is clearly unsafe in Hugo’s careless hands.
You cannot run an efficient service with 100% bed occupancy and hot bedding is clearly a harmful practice increasing the risk of infection.
Stress in wards undermines the user’s immune system, resulting in illness amongst staff, poor quality care and reduced recovery rates by the patients.
The consequences of delayed recovery are bed blocking, increased costs and privatisation through the back door.
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