Is Arrowe Park Hospital “doomed for the winter”?

Dear readers — Another Monday morning, another holiday for Abi. Our intrepid reporter is becoming the Jason Bourne of journalism, vanishing off radar for weeks at a time and reappearing only to blow up another political drama. If you missed her latest hit, an exposé into “the Peter Mandelson of Liverpool politics,” don’t forget to check it out. Over the weekend we also published David Lloyd’s superb and hilarious piece on the city’s wellness gurus, a journey of “etheric womb healings” in Old Swan and shamanism in Stoneycroft. 

Abi might be on holiday, but the rest of us here at the Post are still trucking. For today’s big story, we’re looking at Arrowe Park Hospital, said to be at a dangerous breaking point this winter. As always, be sure to stick around for Post picks, recommended reads, and your daily briefing. 

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The big story: Arrowe Park Hospital is “doomed for the winter”

Top Line: Arrowe Park Hospital is at breaking point trying to meet patient demands and is “doomed for the winter”, according to a paramedic who spoke to the BBC anonymously. The North West Ambulance Service worker said that corridors at the hospital were overflowing, with some patients being left in ambulances for up to ten hours due to the lack of beds.

Context: The anonymous NWAS worker said that 17 ambulances with patients inside had been held up outside the hospital over the last two weeks, meaning the vehicles were not available to respond to other emergencies. The trust that runs Arrowe Park, officially the Wirral University Teaching Hospital (WUTH), told the BBC there had been a “significant increase” in ambulance admissions. 

At the other end, patients ready to be discharged have been stuck in hospital for weeks “as they have no care packages in place,” leading to “bed blocking”.

The Post can personally attest to trouble at the hospital. Just three weeks ago, I accompanied a patient to WUTH’s emergency department. After a four-day wait for urgent mental health treatment, the patient was referred to a specialist ward in Nottingham. While triage nurses are clearly doing their best, the consequences of long hours, short staffing, and poor pay are potentially fatal.

The NWAS worker also told the BBC that paramedics were having to double-up as porters due to staff shortages to take patients to the toilet on trolleys. Patients were having to be assessed in corridors, meaning there was “no dignity or privacy”. "The hospital keep saying they haven't got the staff,” the health worker said.

Back in June, recovery theatre practitioners at WUTH walked out after what they said was a "continued failure to recognise their workplace responsibilities and pay them accordingly." Unite said workers had been left "up to £8,000 out of pocket due to being wrongly graded”.

Other hospitals in the region have also been struggling to cope. "Hospital staff are under enormous pressure and we fully understand how difficult it is," the health worker said. 

Merseyside appears to be a regional microcosm of problems the NHS is facing nationally. The body’s annual Hospital Admitted Patient Care Activity report was published just a few days ago. It records a 7.1% increase in finished admission episodes – the first period of admitted patient care under one consultant within one healthcare provider – over the previous year. 

Last year, the Nuffield Trust and Health Foundation found that the coalition government’s austerity programme in the early 2010s had resulted in “really concerning deterioration across the board”. The study reported that the largest collapse in performance against key targets was in the NHS’s ability to treat A&E patients.

Bottom line: If funding cuts can cause such collapses, more money is surely needed to redress these concerns. Labour’s new Health Secretary Wes Streeting has not committed to greater investment, instead pledging to use the private sector to cut the NHS care backlog. Since Mr Streeting is currently benefiting from thousands of pounds in donations from Merseyside companies, perhaps the crisis at Arrowe Park should make him sit up and take note. 

Your Post briefing

On the grapevine: Liam Didsbury, the former Labour North West director whose resignation after the party’s general election win in July got the rumour mill spinning (as we covered in July) has found himself a new job. Didsbury will be working part-time in Sefton Central MP Bill Esterson’s constituency office. The move is a curious one. A couple of months ago Labour told us his resignation from the Regional Director post (described, perhaps in somewhat exaggerated fashion, by one Labour source as making him “the most powerful person in the North West”) was due to Didsbury wanting to “spend more time with his young family”. But now he’s back at work, albeit in what seems like a lower-responsibility role.  

The Environment Agency (EA) has launched an investigation into a Mersey oil spillage. The spill, from the Stanlow Refinery in Ellesmere Port, had made its way to the mouth of the river by Saturday, causing businesses to close. The North Western Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Association (NWIFCA) confirmed Leasowe cockle fishery would not be opening today as planned after consultations between the Food Standards Agency and Mersey Port Health Authority. EET Fuels, which runs Stanlow Refinery, said it took immediate action to alert the EA and would continue to cooperate fully with the agency. 

The NHS system for weeding out murderers is “under-developed,” the public inquiry into Lucy Letby’s crimes has been told. Letby is serving 15 whole-life orders for killing seven newborn babies at the Countess of Chester Hospital between 2015 and 2016, and for attempting to kill seven more. Mary Dixon-Woods, Professor of Healthcare Improvement Studies at the University of Cambridge, told the hearing at Liverpool Town Hall, “I think our procedures for dealing with these kinds of very transgressive and unusual incidents have remained underdeveloped in the NHS.”

A Knowsley Council meeting heard that crime in the borough has fallen by 14% overall. Sexual assaults in the area, for instance, have seen a 5% decrease in 2023/24 against a 3% national increase. Knowsley, which accounts for about 10% of Merseyside crime overall, had also seen a decrease in reported domestic abuse. However, the council meeting also heard there has been a rise in reports of injury-related violence, hate crime, non-residential burglaries, and illegal driving crimes. An increase in harm committed by children against parents was also reported.

Home of the week

We're big fans of this two bedroom flat on Duke Street. On the market for £138,750, the apartment is flooded with natural light for plants to thrive — plus, it’s just a short walk away from the delights of the city centre. Take a look here. 

Post Picks

🦖Join the Merseyside Archaeological Society on Saturday at the Museum of Liverpool to explore their latest discoveries and research about local archaeology. Find out more here. 

📖For those of you that read Ophira’s fantastic profile of poet Levi Tafari, this one's for you. Tafari heads to the Eleanor Rathbone Building on Saturday as part of the Liverpool Literary Festival 2024. Tickets here. 

🎸On Thursday, promoter Jinks presents Bewitched, a gig at the Kazimier Stockroom with a portion of ticket sales being donated to Palestinian charities. Doors open at 7pm — find out more here. 

🎥On Wednesday, Kitty’s Laundrette continues with its winter film programme of British Gems. This time, they’re screening Wirral-born Alan Clarke's dystopian TV play STARS OF THE ROLLER STATE DISCO. Tickets here. 

Recommended reads

A great read by Solomon Hughes in The Tribune this week goes hand in hand with Abi’s piece about PR guru Dan Hughes. “Keir Starmer has declared he is leading a ‘government of service’,” Hughes writes. “But the party’s embrace of lobbyists at this year’s conference raises the question: whose interests is it serving?”

This interview with drag royalty The Vivienne in Attitude is joyous. “A fascination with comedy, glamour, and legendary celebrity impersonators — among those she namechecks is ‘Frank Marino of Divas Las Vegas’ — informed her initial drag persona, which took form when she moved to the bright lights of Liverpool at 16.”

Jeff Young, Liverpool author and friend of The Post, has penned a beautiful and moving essay about his late father’s struggles with dementia and his family’s attempts to care and cope in the Observer. Jeff’s latest book, Wild Twin, a “hallucinatory dream book of loss and loneliness,” is now available from Little Toller Books. 

Thanks to the FT for sponsoring today’s edition — get your discounted subscription now.