Third of Essex hospital’s A&E patients waiting over 4 hours for treatment
The board responsible for A&E services across east Essex has admitted performance is “quite a way” from where they need to be after figures showed more than a third of patients had to wait more than four hours for treatment. Figures also show that the number of patients waiting over 12 hours in emergency department is significantly above where it should be – in January 11.3 per cent of patients waited more than 12 hours in A&E which is significantly against the two per cent target.
Ambulance handover delays remain below target – with 74 per cent of ambulance patients handed over within 30 minutes compared to a target of 95 per cent. The Suffolk and North East Essex Integrated Care Board (ICB), which looks after Colchester and Ipswich hospitals, has said significant pressure remains across the urgent and emergency care system.
It adds that demand and capacity work has been undertaken to improve flow which should improve the performance and thus improve handover numbers. Paul Gibera, director of performance and improvement, said at its board meeting on March 21 that overcrowding in the A&E departments at any given time, poor patient flow within hospitals and physical space are the main contributors to the under performance.
He added: “Fundamentally we have also had a number of challenges around Covid and Covid numbers being relative high in comparison. But actually there is a flow issue we need to address to make sure we maximise the capacity we have actually got.”
He added: “We are quite a way from where we would like to be. We have thrown the kitchen sink at what the good practice guides are but actually we have not made the difference that what we should be seeing.” Dr Andrew Kelso ICB medical director, said he wanted to see greater clinical engagement and better collaboration with improvement partners.
Dr Ewen Cameron West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust chief executive, said: “I agree we need to put more focus on urgent and emergency care pathways and the reasons behind current performance will be complex. And we need to do more work across the entire pathway from primary care through ambulance services to emergency department flow in hospital and out. We have a lot of work to get to where we need to be over the course of the next few months.”