Anger over NHS spinal injury bed backlog

Health bosses have been accused of causing huge delays in getting the most seriously injured spinal cord patients into specialist beds.

Back and neck injury centres across England are battling a huge backlog to treat patients so badly injured they cannot breathe for themselves.

Throughout the country there are 29 specialist beds for “ventilated patients” who are often completely paralysed by neck breaks, which provide specialist equipment and intensive care.

But new figures show that in December the beds were full with a further 18 patients stuck on a six-week waiting list to receive vital treatment which could transform their quality of life.

Worried spinal injury charities have claimed patients who are fit enough to be discharged are blocking ventilated beds because clinical commissioning groups (CCG) are too slow to put together their care packages.

Dan Burden, who is head of public affairs at the Spinal Injuries Association and is himself paralysed from the chest down, said: “The main concern is that people are stuck in these beds ready to be discharged, but are unable to get out because of their local CCG and health providers, which arrange ventilation equipment and care for the person in their own home.

“They are dragging their heels, they take a long time conducting assessments, quite often the assessment only kicks off when the patient is ready for discharge.”

Dr Mark Bacon, director of research at Spinal Research, added: “The very thought that someone requiring ventilated care cannot receive it from specialists in SCI with expert knowledge is of great concern.

“Access to beds is limited by two major factors; overall capacity is one, but equally important is a recognised failure within the system to discharge ventilated patients to appropriate ventilated care within the community or at home when deemed

medically ready.

“A failure to do so not only increases the burden on existing capacity but contributes to distress of patients, families and friends and reduces integration and quality of life significantly.”

Charity Aspire, which supports 40,000 people with spinal injuries, also backed the claims. “Aspire are aware of and are extremely concerned about the reports that there is an average six-week wait for a bed for a ventilated spinal cord injury patient,” said a spokesman.

“Although additional funding would help, the causes of this long wait are not simply due to a lack of funding or numbers of beds, but are a result of a variety of delays preventing ventilated patients from being discharged when they are ready to go home, which would free up beds.”

A spokesperson for NHS England, said: “We are working with providers to review their provision of services against the national service specification.

“Ensuring that the right support is in place for discharge and continuing care is fundamental. We are currently working with Clinical Commissioning Groups to look at the key issues around this and what actions we can take to improve this.”