NHS needs are long-term, complicated and challenging
Lindsey Hill is lying in a hospital bed drifting in and out of a medicine induced sleep. She is also very tired, her body is fighting a serious lung infection.
She is 40 years old. You cannot tell this by looking at her as her blanket is pulled up to her chin and a tumble of brown falls to her shoulders.
You can hardly see Ms Hill’s face. It is obscured by the oxygen mask she needs to breathe.
It is still a struggle. Her breath is short and shallow and her words are barely audible.
I ask Ms Hill: “Is this the first time you’ve been in hospital this winter?”
She replies: “Yes, it is, but I was here three times last year.”
That’s because Ms Hill suffers from multiple chronic conditions and requires complex care.
Usually she is monitored remotely but nine days ago she was rushed to hospital as a category one emergency.
I ask her if the ongoing crisis in the health service has made her feel anxious because it might impact on her treatment.
She says: “I have but I feel support for the workers because they deserve the world.”
Dr Asad Ali
The demand feels endless
Her consultant Dr Asad Ali says extra community support for patients like Ms Hill helps to ease the pressure. But the demand feels endless.
I ask him: “How do you cope with an ageing population with complex medical problems on the resources that the NHS has?”
Dr Ali tells me: “Resources are limited… and with us all living longer and living with more complex conditions means yes, we do need more resources to provide care, but we also need to do an appraisal of how best we are utilising our resources and whether we can get more value.”
Since the pandemic respiratory services have been flat out. And there’s no end in sight.
I was here in University Hospital Coventry in December 2022, at the height of the flu season. Every bed, in every bay was taken. Since then flu cases have peaked but every bed in every bay is still taken. They’re still at 100% capacity. The winter pressures don’t simply go away.
And these pressures have long-term impacts. More than seven million people are waiting for elective care in England. A list that was too long before the pandemic and has only become longer. Hospitals like Coventry are looking at innovations to help them to cope and make headway on elective backlog.
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Professor Kiran Patel
Pandemic has forced change
The hospital’s chief medical officer, Professor Kiran Patel said the pandemic had forced change, some for the good.
“We mustn’t miss the opportunity that a crisis affords to us and one of the benefits is that it will force us to transform the way in which we deliver health care,” he said.
“We will need to get better at knowing where our demand comes from, what it looks like. So we need to move from being a reactive health service to being a responsive health service, and ultimately being a predictive health service.”
Until that time, patients will keep coming. Across England more than 10,000 patients were brought to an NHS A&E by ambulance every day. Handover times are at record highs despite staff doing everything they can to diagnose, admit and treat people quickly.
And doctors like Ed Hartley want long-term solutions, not short-term fixes.
“Short-term projects to put a holding pen for ambulances outside the A&E doesn’t fix the NHS,” he said. “Short-term projects to help buy some hotel rooms for care home patients or patients who need to leave hospital doesn’t fix the NHS.
“Long-term investment in the workforce, long-term investment in the right size of hospitals, and recognising the care sector as a rewarding career with progression, and presumably appropriate pay, will go a long way to helping the NHS.”
Ms Hill hopes she can go home soon. Her needs are long-term, complicated, and challenging. The same as the health service she relies on.
Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch has called on Sir Keir Starmer to sack Treasury minister Tulip Siddiq over allegations she lived in properties linked to allies of her aunt, Sheikh Hasina, the deposed prime minister of Bangladesh.
It comes after the current Bangladeshi leader, Muhammad Yunus, said London properties used by Ms Siddiq should be investigated.
He told the Sunday Times the properties should be handed back to his government if they were acquired through “plain robbery”.
Tory leader Ms Badenoch said: “It’s time for Keir Starmer to sack Tulip Siddiq.
“He appointed his personal friend as anti-corruption minister and she is accused herself of corruption.
“Now the government of Bangladesh is raising serious concerns about her links to the regime of Sheikh Hasina.”
Ms Siddiq insists she has “done nothing wrong”.
Her aunt was ousted from office in August following an uprising against her 20-year leadership and fled to India.
Ms Siddiq is also named with her aunt in Bangladesh court documents about meetings with the Russian government.
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch has called on Sir Keir to sack the minister
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As economic secretary to the Treasury, Ms Siddiq is responsible for policy on both the City and tackling corruption.
She referred herself to the prime minister’s ethics watchdog on Monday following the reports about the properties.
On the same day, the prime minister said: “Tulip Siddiq has acted entirely properly by referring herself to the independent adviser, as she’s now done, and that’s why we brought into being the new code.
“It’s to allow ministers to ask the adviser to establish the facts, and yes, I’ve got confidence in her, and that’s the process that will now be happening.”
Police in Aberdeen have widened the search area for two sisters who disappeared four days ago in the city.
Eliza and Henrietta Huszti, both 32, were last seen on CCTV on Market Street after leaving their home on Tuesday at around 2.12am.
The sisters – who are part of a set of triplets and originally from Hungary – crossed the Victoria Bridge to the Torry area and turned right on to a footpath next to the River Dee.
Eliza and Henrietta Huszti were last seen on CCTV in Market Street. Pic: Police Scotland/PA
They headed in the direction of Aberdeen Boat Club but officers said there is no evidence to suggest the missing women left the immediate area.
Specialist search teams, police dogs and a marine unit have been trying to trace the pair.
The sisters crossed Victoria Bridge before walking along a footpath next to the River Dee
The pair were heading in the direction of Aberdeen Boat Club on the south side of the River Dee
Further searches are being carried out towards the Port of Aberdeen’s South Harbour and Duthie Park.
Police Scotland said it is liaising with authorities in Hungary to support the relatives of the two sisters.
Chief Inspector Darren Bruce said: “Eliza and Henrietta’s family are understandably extremely worried about them and we are working tirelessly to find them.
“We are seriously concerned about them and have significant resources dedicated to the inquiry.”
The sisters, from Aberdeen city centre, are described as slim with long brown hair.
Henrietta Huszti. Pic: Police Scotland
Eliza Huszti. Pic: Police Scotland
Officers have requested businesses in and around the South Esplanade and Menzies Road area to review their CCTV footage for the early morning of Tuesday 7 January.
Police added they are keen to hear from anyone with dashcam footage from that time.
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