As my recent article noted, this winter, our local A&E services have been experiencing extremely high levels of demand, and coping incredibly well in the face of such pressures.
Like other NHS Trusts around the country, Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH) undertook extensive planning through 2017 to better manage their services at busy times, and I am pleased that so far, this winter:
- There have been no A&E closures or ambulance diverts;
- Bed capacity has improved on all sites;
- Performance, against the NHS’s 4 hour target, is up, compared with this time last year.
I have received a recent update from Simon Wright, the Chief Executive of SaTH, on the Trust’s performance over the New Year, and I can now advise that:
- The planning SaTH introduced through 2017 successfully delivered 85% bed occupancy rates on Christmas Eve;
- SaTH have constructed a rota for busy periods, so that when staff are not in theatre they can support patient discharges;
- TCI methodology is also being used to target the constraints to simple and effective discharge, and together, these have yielded a 20% increase in the number of discharges;
- Performance, against the 4 hour target, is still at an improved state on last year, despite unprecedented demand at local A&E departments.
- Part of the Trust’s recent £2.6m grant been used to calm immediate pressures.
Mr Wright also noted, going forward, that SaTH will be working to secure more doctors and to develop new roles to support a 20% increase in substantive clinicians throughout 2018/19. This, he believes, will allow the Trust to improve on its performance this time next year. This is, again, welcome news.
We are very fortunate in Telford to have some of the best NHS staff in the country, and we owe them an immense debt of gratitude for their hard work during this period.