Paralysed patients face treatment delays because of lack of beds

Paralysed patients are being left on inappropriate hospital wards for up to nine months because of a lack of beds in specialist units.

A Sky News investigation has found patients who have broken their necks or backs in freak accidents are having to wait prolonged periods to be transferred from the general hospital that provided their initial emergency care.

The delay in accessing expert care in a spinal unit puts them at risk of medical complications, including infections and bed sores.

Patients are also having to deal with the psychological impact of a life-changing injury without proper support.

In desperation, one spinal unit has launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise money from the public so it can open a new ward because there is little prospect of the NHS providing funding.

A Freedom of Information request to NHS England found patients wait an average of 52 days to be transferred to an acute bed in one of eight specialist units across the country.

But the longest wait recorded so far this year is 241 days.

The delay is even worse for patients who need a ventilator to breathe.

On average, they wait 69 days to be admitted, even though prompt intervention by an expert team soon after the injury gives them a chance of breathing on their own again.

In one case, a patient was kept on a ventilator in an intensive care unit for 249 days, at a total cost of £299,000.

The same care on a spinal unit - assuming they even needed ongoing ventilation - would have been £132,000 cheaper, the NHS England data suggests.

A national charity for patients with a spinal injury said it was "very concerned" by the figures, adding they showed "a system paralysed by delay".

Sue Browning, chief executive of the Spinal Injuries Association said: "Every day three people will become paralysed and they are going through a life changing event that needs support.

"But we have got a system that is paralysed by delay.

"The specialised centres are critical to helping people come to terms with their condition, to getting the support they need on an emotional, practical and psychological level.

"And most importantly the centres are critical in helping people move forward with their lives and plan for the future.

"It makes a massive difference."

Sky News also submitted Freedom of Information requests directly to England's spinal injury centres to establish the current waiting time for admission.

Responses showed that at the Salisbury Hospital unit patients waited an average of 124 days for one of three beds fitted with a ventilator.

Another two patients are still in the queue.

At the North West Spinal Injuries Centre in Southport, patients waited up to 80 days for an acute bed, with another 15 patients waiting.

Jonathan Walsh, who was paralysed from the neck down after tripping and falling headlong into the path of a bus, waited several weeks to be moved to the spinal unit of the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital in Stanmore, Middlesex.

But at the North Middlesex Hospital, where he waited until a specialist bed became free, staff were unsure of how to care for him.

He developed a bed sore from being left lying in one position for too long.

"I must have been moved ward four times, each time they said it was the most relevant place for me," he said.

He added: "I ended up on a stroke ward but they had no idea about my injury.

"As far as they were concerned I was just lying there not moving, but I had spasms and terrible pain. That was very difficult to deal with.

"I couldn't use the bell to call for a nurse so your whole universe gets very small."

Since being moved to the spinal unit he has begun a programme of specialist physiotherapy and movement is beginning to return to his left arm.

The hospital said in a statement: "We are a busy district hospital and aim to provide all our pateints with the best possible care we can."

Our research also found patients are facing long delays to be discharged from the units because local authorities either don't have enough community care beds, or the resources to refit patients' homes for a wheelchair user.

One patient in the Salisbury unit waited 226 days - 7.5 months - to be discharged.

So far this financial year that unit has lost 2,802 "bed days" to patients who no longer need specialist care.

The world-famous unit at Stoke Mandeville Hospital has lost 2009 bed days.

The spinal unit at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital has launched a crowdfunding appeal - https://makeitpossible.org.uk/p/SCICexpansion - to raise £400,000 to build a new ward with six extra beds.

It was started by former patient Marcus Perrineau-Daley.

He told Sky News: "When you come to Stanmore they give you life again.

"It's not 'we're going to fix you up as best you can'.

"They give you the life you had before but it is in a different way."

Andy Goldberg, a surgeon at the hospital, is helping to run the appeal.

He said crowdfunding offered the quickest route to expanding the unit.

"There are limited NHS resources. Those resources at the moment are going to the rebuild (of the main hospital).

"We need the crowd to come together to get this off the ground."

In a statement NHS England said: "There has been increasing demand for spinal cord injury services in recent years, so we have commissioned a review of provision across England."