Woman with agonising burns sent away from two hospitals: new rules mean people have to get urgent care at unit closest to home

Patients needing urgent care may be sent to the unit closest to their homes under new rules, the Manchester Evening News revealed.

Hospital bosses admitted the ‘protocol’ after one patient, suffering horrific burns, reported being sent away from two hospitals before receiving any care.

The Northern Care Alliance NHS Group has introduced the directive as part of a ‘reconfiguration of services across Greater Manchester’, saying that patients will be sent to the 'most appropriate place for their needs', 'closest to their home', in the 'quickest time possible'.

However, anyone needing care for emergency and life-threatening conditions can still go to their nearest A&E department for treatment, hospital chiefs have stressed.

The group operates Salford Royal Hospital, the Royal Oldham Hospital, Fairfield General Hospital, and Rochdale Infirmary, among other local care services.

The instructions come as a 64-year-old woman from Norden in Rochdale suffered with severe burns after accidentally tipping scalding water on herself while on holiday in Northumberland.

The woman - a former nurse of more than 30 years - was unable to treat the burns alone, and she returned home with her husband, immediately attending Rochdale Infirmary's Urgent Care Centre.

Noting that there would be a 'five-and-a-half hour wait' for urgent care, a staff member sent the patient to Fairfield General's Accident and Emergency Department in Bury, she says.

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Source: Evening Manchester News, 29 September 2021