OUR Prime Minister Theresa May is to be congratulated on her Florence Brexit speech. The government faces major challenges in the negotiations with the EU. Hopefully her speeches will have changed the climate for those very difficult talks which will affect the future of all of us.

However, I look for a similar commitment from her and her Minister of State for Health and Social Care to tackle the real challenges that face our NHS, particularly A&E and to produce the resources needed for the issues and problems they have to deal with on a day to day basis. Although the party pledged at the election to deal with both through integrating health and social care to make better use of resources, there has been little evidence to date of any real improvement.

I experienced those challenges first hand when I was admitted to the Royal Bolton A&E via the out of hours BARDOC scheme because of acute abdominal pain. Arriving at 6am, staff were coming towards the end of 12 hour very busy shifts. I was assessed in Triage and sat with my wife in the waiting area until 9.30am when I was seen by a doctor who prescribed a plan of treatment but apologised for a delay as there were no cubicles available, due patients who had been admitted to A&E during the night still awaiting transfer to a ward because there were no beds available. The department was overcrowded and very busy and the ability of staff to resolve the situation was dependent upon morning ward rounds discharging patients from the weekend; as well as some ‘bed blocking’ as a result of elderly patients not being able to be discharged to care services. And this is before winter pressures set in.

At 11.30am I was transferred to a surgical assessment unit with staff seemingly working 12 hour shifts. I was eventually seen at 5pm by a registrar and referred to the consultant who visited me at around 6.30pm. I was eventually discharged home at 9.30pm when at least one doctor was still on duty having started at 8am.

During my time I received high calibre care from helpful, committed and empathetic staff who were all clearly under considerable pressure and who worked very long hours in demanding circumstances.

My question is: are Mrs May and her Minister of State for Health going to really face the realities of a health and care system, particularly A&E, that is at a point of not functioning, or is Government so involved in dealing with the Brexit challenges that they cannot deal with the fact that an inadequacy of resources as well as a failure to tackle the need for integration of hospital and care services has resulted in unsustainable pressures on our personnel and health services?

Revd David Griffiths

Woodford, Mill Lane, Horwich, Bolton