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AN URGENT meeting to discuss Suffolk’s NHS crisis was called by West Suffolk MP Richard Spring at the House of Commons.

He was joined by the rest of the county’s MPs to meet councillors and officials from Suffolk County Council. They discussed the fact that 11 per cent of beds in the county’s hospitals are now blocked by patients unable to be discharged into nursing or residential homes or cared for at home.

Mr Spring points out that changes in NHS funding means Suffolk is now the 93rd least well funded health authority in the country, out of a total of 99. Suffolk Health Authority is in deficit and its hospitals are having to make budgetary cuts. The county council’s social services department is also overspent and a number of residential homes have closed recently.
Mr Spring said he called the meeting to try and understand the difficulties more clearly and see what could be done to help. The MPs wanted to learn whether the problems were exclusively due to a lack of investment and increased regulation or whether there were more local reasons.

“Clearly there are very considerable concerns in the NHS in Suffolk about what the winter will bring. Despite the magnificent efforts of our NHS staff, the pressures on them will only increase as winter approaches.

“With operations being cancelled our hospitals are now routinely on critical alert. This is not a sustainable situation. The NHS, as a result in part of the bed blocking difficulties, has never been in such a critical state in Suffolk,” Mr Spring said.