Heartlands hospital needs a lifeline

17 Jul 2024
Cllr Harmer and Cllr Tilsley at Heartlands

At the last full council meeting, Cllr Tilsley explained that on a visit to the department, he and colleagues saw queues coming out of the doors of the accident and emergency department. The queues were the “walking wounded”, waiting to be booked in by reception.

Cllr Tilsley added that as a patient, he was treated in a store room due to a serious lack of space. He praised health professionals, and sympathised with the fact that they have inadequate resources to meet demand for around 400,000 patients in the East Birmingham area.

He compared the hospital to the Queen Elizabeth that serves the west of the city, and offers “a much better all-round experience”.

“The problem in the East of the City is multi-faceted” said Cllr Tilsley “there are not enough GP’s, and not enough appointments to go around, and so a lot of people end up in A&E. Deprivation creates poor health outcomes, and with a population that is ageing and growing exponentially, the problems are set to get worse.”

“Coupled to this, we know that the City council’s finances are in a dire state. Adult Social Care is having to make service cuts and efficiencies which will have direct and indirect consequences on patient’s ability to return home safely”

“The site is landlocked, so it needs to be re-engineered to support a larger population. If it is to improve, it will need significant investment from the Government.

“That’s why the Liberal Democrats are campaigning for Government funding to redevelop the service.”

The Liberal Democrat motion passed with cross party support.

Urgent and emergency services at Heartlands are currently rated as “requires improvement”

Support our campaign - sign our petition here:

https://www.birminghamlibdems.org.uk/our-campaigns/heartlands-petition

Watch our campaign video:

https://youtu.be/xtOFSq5PfM4?si=nSawowcmlJHmweoY

This website uses cookies

Like most websites, this site uses cookies. Some are required to make it work, while others are used for statistical or marketing purposes. If you choose not to allow cookies some features may not be available, such as content from other websites. Please read our Cookie Policy for more information.

Essential cookies enable basic functions and are necessary for the website to function properly.
Statistics cookies collect information anonymously. This information helps us to understand how our visitors use our website.
Marketing cookies are used by third parties or publishers to display personalized advertisements. They do this by tracking visitors across websites.