A&E shambles

Shockingly, it now appears to be the case that recently opened hospital emergency departments are so bereft of qualified staff that they, too, have to dial for the Armed Forces.

David Cameron hopes to define his Government by his commitment to the NHS, hence his decision to spare the department from the cuts that are being implemented elsewhere.

Yet, despite this, the new A&E ward at Pontefract Hospital has been closed overnight since November after the Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust failed to recruit sufficient doctors to staff it properly.

The last resort for any person needing medical attention is their hospital – during the day there are a plethora of alternatives. It’s different late at night, people with serious concerns rely on their A&E department. But not in Pontefract.

This is a ward that is barely a year old, and yet it was forced to appeal to the Army for spare medics. Simply put, it is hard to imagine a justifiable reason for such mismanagement to have taken place.

Quite rightly local residents have been strongly critical of this failure. At the very least, they deserve a full apology from the Trust, and a full inquiry into how such an embarrassing situation should have come about.

The Pontefract and Castleford MP, Yvette Cooper, has seized on the shambles to attack the Government. While it may be unfair to lay the blame of hospital mismanagement at the door of the Prime Minister – many of the Trust’s difficulties stem from the time when Ms Cooper was in office – Mr Cameron will certainly have considerable work to do if he is to convince voters in Pontefract that his party can be trusted with the NHS.