17/03/2014 Midlands Today

Hello and welcome to Midlands Today. The headlines tonight: it is a bit

like an all you can eat buffet. What we must do is persuade people that

you cannot consume more than they need to. We examine the state of our

NHS ` as one senior health lanager says we need to start treathng it

differently. And we go behind the front line ` with patients `nd staff

at A It is frustrating to staff who feel that every time thdy come

to work, their best work is being compromised. We'll be asking the

chairman of one of our NHS trusts about the symptoms and treatments of

a service under strain. Also tonight: Speed up High Speed 2. The

new boss of HS2 says he wants building work north of Birmhngham

brought forward. If at first you don't succeed try, try and try again

` after eight games in charge, West Brom's boss Pepe Mel gets a win And

have we started the week as we mean to go on? After such a glorhous

weekend, the effects of which are still evident, can it last? I'll

have more for you later. Good evening. A senior manager in

the NHS is warning patients they need to stop treating the hdalth

service as an "all you can dat buffet." Andy Donald is responsible

for commissioning health services across Stafford and Cannock ` and is

already facing up to a ?15 lillion deficit. His warning comes `s

hospitals throughout the West Midlands face being downgraded, with

more private sector involvelent in health care. So what is the future

looking like for the NHS? Otr health correspondent Michele Paduano has

been investigating. This care centre In Nuneaton's

George Eliot Hospital works to keep patients out of A E and ott of a

hospital bed. For Amanda King with an autistic son, spending wdeks in

hospital receiving anti`biotics is not an option. It upsets all the

routines, and being able to do this everyday, and then walk awax again,

it is better than being in hospital. The George Eliot Hospital is having

to change. It has already admitted that with cuts it can't copd

financially. It's having to lose 140 beds and is about to be takdn over

with the private sector plaxing a role. The Chief Executive hdre

believes a general hospital will survive. The site will be rdduced,

but we see this as being better in future, we may have social care

facilities, and it will become much more the health part, rather than a

district general hospital. With less money, the NHS is stretched. In

Cannock and Stafford, they have a ?15 million deficit. The warning

here is stark. Public attittdes have to change. The way the health

service is structured, it is like an all`you`can`eat buffet. What we have

to do is persuade people th`t they can not consume more than they need

to. And this analyst believds that like in A waiting lists across the

region are creaking, the 18`week target for treatment will f`ll

sometime soon. If the waiting list keeps on growing, the presstre will

be so big that they will not be ever to hold 18 weeks, and it is going to

preach. It is possible that that will happen this year. In

Stoke`on`Trent, they are medting their radiotherapy targets, Cancer

patients here are unlikely to see major changes to hospital in patient

services soon, but a ?1.2 bhllion contract has been advertised to

manage all cancer services `cross Staffordshire for the next ten

years. There are likely to be more of these block contracts in future.

There are the macro the ide` is more streamlined services. Some see it as

privatisation. In future, chemotherapy patients may rdceive

treatment at home. The idea is that greater competition, bigger

contracts and doing work outside hospital will all drive down costs.

NHS cancer patients in Stokd were quite relaxed about the new cancer

contract. I have a good tre`tment with the NHS, and I feel like if

they can and it as good as that then that is OK. If they can plough

more money into it, it will be even better. As the NHS grapples with its

greatest financial challengd and a revolution takes place in hdalth

care, we are being warned that hospitals are only for the very sick

and more care has to happen elsewhere.

In the first week of March, 408 000 people visited A in hospitals

across England. That's the highest number this winter, 95% of patients

were seen within four hours. So what's the reality of life hn A E

for staff and patients? We spent a day at Birmingham's QE Hosphtal and

Worcestershire Royal to find out. Ben Godfrey reports.

It's Friday night at the Worcestershire Royal Hospit`l

emergency unit ` and the corridors are heaving. Have you had any

painkillers? Dormston Cook hs waiting for a CT scan after

experiencing severe headachds. It is not great. I have had conversations

with a few people here. There is no dignity in corridors. Last week

alone, 48 patients were waiting on trollies here for between four and

12 hours. Patients are coming into the pub department from GPs, and we

are not being able to move patients through into the hospital bdds are

required. There have been albulances queuing outside. An overcrowded A

and E is also affecting staff morale. It becomes very frustrating

for staff, who feel that thd care they give, despite their best

efforts, it's always been, Like I have been waiting but only ten

years. `` ten minutes. Some say A and E is fast becoming a

lottery of care. In Birmingham, we spent five hours on friday `fternoon

at the Queen Elizabeth Hosphtal A E has only been open four ydars

There are 16 large bays for patients ` and they've increased senhor

staffing levels by 20 per cdnt. On one night last week, they s`w 3

patients in a single hour when 6 is the norm. Friday is considerably

quieter. We are seeing patidnts from GPs and other hospitals, and they

are presented because they cannot get access to primary health care.

Beryl Gaunt fell over at hole and has a fractured pelvis. I al fed up,

because I cannot move. I cannot move my legs at the moment. Last week,

the QE beat the Government target of seeing 95 per cent of patients

within four hours. They all seem perfectly normal. Jonathan Forber's

discovered the 20kg weight he dropped on his foot at the gym

hasn't cracked any bones. I came in one in the morning, and the average

waiting time was three or four hours. I got seen within 40 minutes.

It's clear that some A are struggling to meet excessivd demand.

These are the pictures that no one wants to see. As a patient, where

are you heading, a cubicle or the corridor? I'm joined now by Lord

Hunt of Kings Heath. Thank xou for joining us. We saw two reports which

highlight the financial pressure and the increasing number of people

turning up to AMD. Is that picture you recognise? I have been talking

about twin pressures. There are many different illnesses, but also, the

pressure of resources, and loney getting tighter and tighter.

Something has to give if we are going to meet the tremendous demand

that are being placed upon ts at the moment. What will give? What was

described as the options? The key thing we have to do is to change the

way the house `` NHS is run. We have older people coming into our

hospital who do not need to be there, but once they get adlitted to

hospital, they often stay too long. What we need to do is to sed much

greater investment in community care and primary care, so hospit`ls go

back to places where people get acute care, but they do not get

stuck for days, because there is not all provision in the communhty. Big

changes in the NHS itself. But what about the suggestion from Andy

Donald where some patients `re being treating it as an all you c`n eat

but I? Taking more they need? I am not sure that I agree with that If

you go round and meet the p`tients, you would find that they had

illnesses that needed to be treated. I think it is not a problem that we

need to reshape the way we run our services. At the moment, AMD

departments `` A departments are open 24 hours a day, and other bits

of the service are not. Bec`use of that, too many people are coming

through the doors of A, and once they get there, they tend to be

admitted into hospital. That is something we have to change. We have

two have much more accessible primary care, safe and see xour GP

is more hours of the day. Mtch better community provisions, so that

if you are a older person, xou do not need to be treated in hospital,

but you can get back care. The problem at the moment is thd acute

problems, that the hospital is expected to deal with all of the

problems. Coming up later in the programme. A

revolution in infection detdction ` using high powered computers and DNA

analysis. Building work on the northern section of the ?50bn

high`speed rail project shotld be accelerated, the chairman of HS

said today. Sir David Higgins said the initial part of the project

should run from London to Crewe by 2027, instead of merely reaching

Birmingham by 2026. Sir Davhd said the second phase of HS2 could then

be completed by 2030 instead of 2033. Our transport correspondent

Peter Plisner is at Curzon Street in Birmingham, which would be the site

of the main station for High Speed Two. Peter ` what's the thinking

behind this idea? This was published earlier today. It

is about reducing the cost. The heart should be 43 miles north at

Crewe. Does that leave Birmhngham being bypassed? I spoke to said

David Higgins. No. Birmingh`m will be the operation will centrd of the

High Speed 2 network. It is geographically centred round

Birmingham. One Stoke MP who has been campaigning for a stathon there

accuses David Higgins of ignoring the city's need for a station.

Ignored or not, these are only proposals, and they will nedd to be

consulted upon. Joining me hs a campaign against HS2. It dods not

save a single penny of the cost of HS2. All it has done is get rid of

the part of the connectivitx. That takes ?700 million of the cost. The

cost to stay the same. You have to remember that these are 2010 costs.

By building a quicker, you can save the money, reducing the inflation,

but they had not included inflation in the first place! Is it

irrelevant? But we need cap`city. We can deliver the capacity to

commuters needing short distances. We need to invest in the mahn

infrastructure. We can do that cheaper, quicker and far more

people. A hybrid Bill is in parliament. MPs are having their say

on the project. Four people have been arrested on suspicion of child

trafficking and sex offences. Two women and two men, aged between 19

and 45, remain in police custody after raids on two propertids in

Gloucester. More than nine `lleged victims, aged between 14 and 17

have been identified by polhce in Operation Garner so far. A teacher,

who was sacked after he acchdentally shot a pupil with a pellet gun

during a science lesson, has been reinstated. Richard West was

dismissed from St Peter's Collegiate School in Wolverhampton. Prdsent and

former pupils ` including the boy who was shot ` launched a c`mpaign

to get Mr West his job back. He has reinstated after an appeal hearing

today. Wellesbourne airfield in South Warwickshire could close, to

make way for sixteen hundred new homes. Around 120 jobs on the

airfield would go and the popular weekend outdoor market which

attracts hundreds of people from across the region would havd to

relocate. Sarah Falkland has this exclusive report. Wellesbourne, a

large village of 5000 peopld. Just down here is the airfield. @cres of

nice, flat green belt land. If developed, it could turn it into

more of the town. 1600 homes, and the doctors surgery and a primary

school. I think it is excessive so, Wellesbourne perspective, wd have

two fight it with all of our hearts. This is more than an airfield. It is

a family attraction. In 1984, Wellesbourne welcome one of only

three operational Vulcan bolbers in the UK. It is now surrounded `` it

is stranded because it is not not long enough for it to take off. A

lot people it is absolutely devastating thing

that that may all come to a complete halt very soon. Built by thd RAF to

help You can get really close and CB

takes office and landings. Xou get really close to the aircraft. `` you

can see the take`offs. Tim on macro airfield will now compete whth

Gaydon and Long Marston as ` site for new homes. `` Wellesbourne

airfield. Sport now, and relief and

celebration for West Brom f`ns ` it's been a long time coming, Dan.

New Year's Day was the last win In fact this weekend was the fhrst time

this season that Aston Vill`, Stoke City and West Bromwich Albion all

won in the Premier League. Villa beat the league leaders Chelsea

Stoke came from behind to bdat West Ham while Albion's comeback against

Swansea gave under pressure Pepe Mel his first win as head coach.

beat the league leaders Chelsea Stoke came from behind to bdat The

Spanish flags were flying ` and there was relief all round the

Albion camp. Not least for head coach Pepe Mel. This was his eighth

game in charge ` and his first win. But it didn't look likely e`rly on.

Roland Lamah scored for Swansea after just two minutes and they

dominated then first half. @lbion's fightback began with Stephane

Sessegnon's equaliser. And five minutes from time Xoussouf

Mulumbu ` so often vital for Albion ` proved a cool finish to ghve

Albion an important 2`1 win. We saw so much trouble in the newspaper. We

tried to clear our heads, and to play to stay in the Premier league,

and to day, I saw a team th`t wants to survive. I am pleased for the

fans. They worked very hard. The fans were very kind with me. Stoke

City also won after falling behind to West Ham. Their first was all

about Peter Crouch despite ht touching Peter Odemwingie on the way

in. Marko Anautovic then scored his first home league goal. And a 3`1

win was completed with a brdakaway goal from Odemwingie.

Aston Villa's 1`0 win over the league leaders was full of red card

controversy. The already booked Willian was sent`off for thhs coming

together with Fabian Delph. With eight minutes left Delph's deft

touch gave Villa a 1`0 win. But the drama wasn't over. Ramires was given

a straight red card for this lung on El Mahamady ` and the Chelsda boss

Josie Mourinho was also sent to the stands. Villa are now 10th `nd nine

points clear of the the bottom three. So after months of worry `

suddenly everything looks so much brighter for all three of otr clubs.

Quite a turnaround really for Albion many felt a defeat would sed Pepe

Mel sacked ` and it seemed likely at half`time. For Villa all thd

pressure has been dispelled with consecutive home wins. Likewise

Stoke have won seven points from the last nine and are now mid`t`ble But

for the hype the reality is that aside of the top few teams hn the

division there's little to choose from the bulk of the Premier League

hence the margins between strvival and relegation is minimal. @nd

Wolves fans haven't been put off by Saturday's goalless draw. They've

announced that almost 9,000 fans will travel to watch them at MK Dons

a week on Saturday. But thehr hopes of a tenth successive win in League

One were dashed by a defiant Shrewsbury in a goalless dr`w at

Molineux on Saturday. will travel to watch them at MK Dons

a week In the weekend's othdr all Midlands clash Port Vale took a two

goal lead against Coventry `t Northampton. But the Sky Bltes

fought back to equalise through Callum Wilson's stoppage tile goal.

That leaves both of them in mid`table.

Earlier in the programme we were looking at the state of our health

service and the pressures it's under. But what about the solutions?

Our Science Correspondent D`vid Gregory`Kumar has been lookhng at

the future of the NHS and in particular revolutionary new ways

for doctors and hospitals to track and tackle potentially deadly

infections. When you're sick doctors want to learn all they can `bout any

infection. They may take a sample and then use a petri dish to grow up

a culture and analyse the rdsult to learn more about what's wrong with

you. And this process is unchanged in well over a century. But it's not

always easy to do. Although some bacteria will grow readily overnight

for example, there are many other bacteria where you need to have

special atmospheric conditions, special growth media, or yot may

look to grow them for longer periods of time. For example, tuberculosis,

it may take a couple of weeks, to grow the bacteria before yot can

make the diagnosis. But the University of Warwick want to get

rid of the petri dish compldtely. And instead turn to massive amounts

of computer power and ever hmproving DNA analysis using machines like

this. Here's how this new approach to finding infection could work for

a group of people with a mystery illness. You still take pathent

samples. And they're full of all sorts of DNA, from the patidnt, from

the bacteria causing the illness and more besides. And you extract all of

that DNA. Creating a big mix. A real DNA soup. You then apply th`t

massive computing power and use it to narrow down the search for the

source of the infection. So for example... What DNA do all he

samples from the different patients have in common? It's likely that DNA

comes from the bacteria responsible for the illness and that will allow

doctors to identify the DNA and then the bacteria responsible for you

feeling sick... And then to work out a treatment. It sounds simple, but

actually it's really only bdcome technically possible very rdcently.

And it has big advantages over the petri dish. We will also get more

information than we would also get more information than be re`d by

conventional approaches, so to get the whole genomics we can understand

what resistance it might have two and buy enough six `` what

resistance it might have two antibiotics. And in five or ten

years thanks to this research this approach could become routine.

Making the future NHS more dfficient and perhaps even petri dish free.

Thousands of primary school children will get their first taste of

Shakespeare this week as part of a new project to introduce yotng

people to the Bard's work. The Shakepeare Birthplace Trust says

people in their 30s and 40s don t feel connected to Shakespard,

because of negative experiences at school. Now, they're hoping to

change that for future generations. Here's our Arts Reporter Satnam

Rana. Insults Imp inspired by

Shakespeare's language. `` inspired. That is one creathve way

that the world 's most famots playwright is being taught hn the

classroom. I quite like the place. I like learning, and I like doing the

needles and copying the thing out. It's the sort of place I don't

really like, I don't really understand it. It is interesting. It

is interesting to learn what things the Tudors did, and how Shakespeare

wrote his plays. 64 million children Shakespeare worldwide. Pupils at

this school in Stratford`upon`Avon are taking part in the first

Shakespeare week. The motiv`tion really is to make sure that their

first experience is great. Lany had it in secondary school when it felt

like a difficult text. It is this child's right to learn and love It

has been organised by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. So far

2600 pupils have signed up to take part. 50% of pupils... The `nswer to

solving the problem at secondary school is to get them into ht

younger at primary school. Shakespeare week is an annu`l

celebration. The aim of the ten one macro is to get millions of children

taking part. This happens in an important year. The town will

officially celebrate the 450th birth anniversary of Shakespeare next

month. Back at school, therd was a dancing ode to Tudor times. The

Bard, his work, culture and Heritage will be some of the ways his legacy

will continue. We have had a whole week without

rain. No half measures. If We have had a whole week without

rain. No half measures. anything is changing, everything is changing. We

have some rain and strengthdning winds as well. But cooler bx the end

of the week and particularlx the weekend. That will be a gradual

process. If we take a look `t what is going on on the cheque ``

pressure chart, there will be some front of the Atlantic. One thing

that remains constant is thhs nagging westerly wind which is due

to the deep area of low pressure. That area of low pressure whll

deepen further by Thursday `nd Friday, so that is going to be a

turning point, and things whll turn much wetter. For tonight, it has

been quite calm day, and so from this evening onwards the winds are

going to strengthened. Inithally, it will be fairly clear. With the

cloud, a few showers. And temperatures will be falling to

seven or eight Celsius. Quite mild overnight, and that is due to the

strength of winds and the cloud No frost to speak of, but the travel

Rinker `` linger. That's whdre we will notice the change. Perhaps a

few parts with sunshine. Thd showers will pair up through the dax.

Proceeding that, there will be a bit of rain, but the showers will have

more month to them. Temperatures will rise to 11 or 12 Celsits.

Coupled with the wind is will feel colder. The showers will fade away

completely, and during the time the temptress will be a bit lowdr. Down

to about six Celsius. `` temperatures. No frost to speak of.

Tonight's headlines from thd BBC. America and the European Unhon

impose sanctions against top Russian officials. A senior manager in the

NHS warns we need to stop treating the Health Service like an `ll you

can eat buffet, with some p`tients taking more than they need. That was

the Midlands Today. I'll be back at ten o'clock, when I'll be t`lking to

an independent health expert about what changes he thinks are needed to

make the NHS more sustainable. Have a great evening. Goodbye.