Shropshire Star

Sharp rise in 12-hour waits at Shropshire's A&Es

There has been a sharp rise in the number of people waiting on trolleys in Shropshire's A&E departments for more than 12 hours.

Published

The most recent figures, considered by Shropshire Clinical Commissioning Group in a performance report, show a significant jump in the number of people waiting at Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and Princess Royal Hospital Telford – both managed by Shrewsbury & Telford Hospitals NHS Trust (SaTH).

The figures, which cover the number of people waiting more than 12 hours in A&E from the time of the decision to admit them to their actual admission, saw a jump from just one incident in December to 33 in January.

Since April last year there have been 47 of the cases, with January's incidents making up the vast majority.

Unlike the national target for 95 per cent of patients to be admitted to A&E within four hours, the target for 12-hour trolley breaches is considered "zero tolerance".

The number of delayed handovers for patients from ambulances at the hospitals has also seen a significant increase.

Priority

The number of handovers taking more than one hour at both hospitals was up to 398 in January, from 314 in December, and 227 in November.

Nigel Lee, chief operating officer at SaTH, said the hospitals were dealing with more patients than before.

He said: “Nobody should have to wait longer than necessary for treatment, however, our first priority is always to make sure that all of our patients receive the right care.

“Both of our A&Es, like others across the country, were under enormous pressure in January. We saw attendances increase by 13.2 per cent – around an extra 26 patients a day – compared to last year.

"In one week alone our A&E departments saw more than 2,600 people. The Trust also saw a 17.1 per cent increase in ambulance arrivals – around 18 a day – compared to last year, as well as an increase in admissions at both hospitals.

“This underlines the importance of separating emergency care from urgent care which means that we will be able to see people much more quickly and much more effectively.”

The difficulties were illustrated earlier this month when paramedics found a screen with a note pinned to it blocking the A&E corridor at Telford’s Princess Royal Hospital advising them to wait in their vehicles until staff were ready.

The note at Telford's Princess Royal Hospital

Following the incident Mark Docherty, West Midlands Ambulance Service's director of clinical commissioning, wrote to SaTH chief executive Simon Wright with “strongly worded” concerns.

Mr Docherty stated in a newsletter: “I am also very concerned about recent events at the PRH site where ambulance crews have been denied access to the emergency department. This creates a dangerous and unacceptable situation for our patients. It also causes harm to those patients we are unable to get to because of these delays.”

Management at the hospitals have made no secret of the pressure facing the county's A&Es, issuing persistent reminders for people to think carefully before attending the emergency departments.

Mr Wright has also said that issues facing the county's emergency units will be addressed by implementing the Future Fit Plans, which were agreed last month.

Severity

The report considered by the CCG outlined the severity of the situation.

It stated: "Activity levels remain higher than predicted for West Midlands Ambulance Service and Shropshire and Telford Hospitals (SaTH). This has had an overall growth in demand for beds, resulting in an increase of 12 hour trolley breaches reported. For the month of January 2019, there have been 33 trolley breaches reported by SaTH, which is an increase of 15 per cent compared to January 2018’s figure of 28."

The report says cases will now be reviewed to see if the length of the waits led to any patients being harmed.

It also highlights the risks posed to the service at Princess Royal Hospital by the reliance on agency staff.

It stated: "Workforce issues continue to be a constant challenge for the trust in its emergency departments. SaTH have shared the workforce plan however, the safe today reports’ continue to evidence the high percentage of locum versus substantive staff especially on night cover as the Princess Royal Hospital. Concerns over the frailty of substantive staff during this time remain high risk."