New measures at NHS trust to reduce A&E waits

Hospital chiefs in Staffordshire have rolled out measures to tackle ambulance handover delays and long A&E waits.

University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust carried out a "change week" at the end of March, with staff moving to new ways of working aimed at speeding up the flow of patients. Actions have included improving frailty assessments.

The trust said evidence showed creating capacity by moving on patients quickly was the best way of tackling long-standing problems with A&E delays.

Ambulance handovers took one hour and 15 minutes on average in February, the best performance since last September but well above the maximum turnaround time sought by the NHS of 45 minutes.

Chief operating officer Katy Thorpe spoke at a board meeting of the trust, which runs Royal Stoke University Hospital and County Hospital, Stafford.

She stated there were "some teething problems during that first week", but "we've seen some real change after that".

Thorpe said: "Frailty assessment have been amended. We're moving vulnerable adults with high priority score from the emergency department to be treated by vulnerable adults team earlier in their pathway."

The chief operating officer stated data showed "flow is the most important factor in terms of ambulance handovers, as well as the time patients spend in the emergency department".

She said the focus had been "on all different points on a patient pathway, all the way from the front door" and results of new ways of working would be reported to the board in June.

Chief executive Simon Constable said it was "less to do" with the number presenting at its front door and more to do "with the subsequent flow".

He pointed out at "this point last year we'd declared seven critical incidents – we declared two this winter".

"Clearly we're not satisfied with where we're at, we've still got a long way to go. But what it does show is what we're capable of doing when we do all of the right things consistently."

In February, a West Midlands Ambulance Service spokesperson said handover delays in the region made up about a third of the total across England.

"We recognise there is more that we need to do, which is why we have increased the number of paramedics and nurses in our control rooms and have more ambulances and paramedics on the road than ever before."

This news was gathered by the Local Democracy Reporting Service which covers councils and other public service organisations.

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