According the the Eastern Daily Press, cuts are to be made in the provision of neo natal services in Norfolk.
This has, from my experience, got to be a massive mistake.
I have a friend who works at the Norfolk and Norwich hospital who has told me on numerous occasions about how the Neo Natal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) has been, at times, almost 80% over occupied, such is the shortage of beds in the hospital. Whilst whilst my wife was in hospital in Labour last year in a ward (because maternity was full) she heard a midwife on her ward on the phone literally begging for some support because, in her words, she "had 14 women in various stages of Labour on her ward, she was the only midwife and she should have been one of four".
It is scandalous that the NHS can be considering cuts when it is clear that closing facilities in Great Yarmouth and Kings Lynn will only put further pressure on to Norwich.
2 comments:
Sadly, when you have an NHS run by government targets and government spending priorities instead of local outcomes and local priorities, this is what you get.
Pressure on beds for adults has zip effect on critical care cots for premature babies. And Norwich has a regional specialist NICU with 28 cots which is down to NHS investment in local services. Under the Tories, there was no NICU in Norwich! But I'm sure the good old Tory boys of the Bullingdon Club could handover some dosh for NHS neonatal care!
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