DIRECTORS of North Cumbria's NHS hospital trust have revealed more details about their plan to improve performance and reduce crowding in Accident and Emergency Departments (A&E).
Details of plans to improve performance came at a meeting of North Cumbria Integrated Care (NCIC) directors on Wednesday May 27.
The board heard that 62.6 per cent of patients are being seen, treated and admitted or discharged within the standard four hour waiting time.
Relevant to March, the figure was an improvement on the 62.1 per cent recorded in February but still falls well below the national average of 77.1 per cent.
NCIC made four major investments in March designed to transform its Urgent and Emergency Care services:
- Recruitment to fully staff the new Urgent Treatment Centre (UTC) on Carlisle's Cumberland Infirmary site.
- Recruitment to extend the operating hours at Same Day Emergency Care (SDEC) hubs.
- Establishment of a frailty model ensuring more patients do not need to be admitted.
Speaking at the board meeting in May, Executive Medical Director, Doctor Adrian Clements gave more details on changes that will be made within the departments to ensure the £3.79 million investment delivers results.
He said: "What we've done through the Unplanned Care Board is say 'okay, with those investments, how is that going to improve our performance as they come on stream, what is that challenge?"
He said that while four hour performance is currently sat at 65 per cent, the trust has told NHS England it aims to achieve 81.4.
"But we believe, with some ambition, we could potentially get to 85 per cent by year end," Dr Clements said.
"From putting in our UTC, initially it will open on June 1 and we'll see a 2.2 per cent improvement in that performance related to the UTC by year end that will have delivered a 3.4 per cent improvement in totality of performance."
Improvements in Urgent and Emergency Care services will come with a change in the working culture at NCIC.
Dr Clements said: "It will be a zero tolerance to breaching the four hour standard of patients in our UTC. For every patient entering our new UTC, you don't spend more than four hours."
A piece of work is also being carried out to identify patients who are waiting for test results under the care of the emergency staff.
The waiting times for patients in those circumstances affects the trust's performance data.
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Dr Clements said: "So what we need to do is identify who those patients are and why they're waiting for diagnostic tests, we move them to a better environment where they're looked after and not sat in a crowded Emergency Department.
"The team believe that if we do that, that will give us a four per cent improvement in our (four hour) standard."
SDEC departments in the trust's hospitals and staff at the Cumberland Infirmary's new UTC will be asked to consider taking-on patients from A&E when they are quiet, again reducing the number of people waiting more than four hours.
The trust is urging NHS professionals to attend an open day at the Cumberland Infirmary on June 30 and consider joining its mission to eliminate crowding in A&E.
In particular, the trust needs to recruit acute medical consultants who will staff SDEC facilities through their additional operating hours and senior clinicians who will support the newly established frailty model.
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