Home care crisis 100 fit patients stuck in hospitals
ABOUT 100 medically fit patients are stuck in hospitals at the health trust that runs the BRI and Weston General because of a “crisis” in home care, it has been revealed.
They cannot be discharged by University Hospitals Bristol & Weston NHS Trust (UHBW) until community care packages are available, but these services are not yet back at pre-Covid levels.
And all healthcare providers are struggling to recruit staff because “the likes of Amazon” are offering higher pay for less stressful jobs, UHBW chief executive Robert Woolley told a board meeting.
The problem is so severe that the trust has had to find nurses from abroad, with 147 set to start by December, health chiefs heard.
On top of bed-blocking and staff shortages, Bristol Children’s Hospital is seeing an influx of youngsters with mental health conditions, which have increased during the pandemic.
All this has added even more pressure on a system already creaking under the strain of unprecedented numbers of A&E patients, emergency departments (EDs) “struggling to cope” and thousands more on waiting lists because of the backlog, which is now rising again.
Deputy chief executive and chief operating officer Mark Smith told UHBW’s board: “We are under sustained pressure in our organisation and that is no different to any others in the NHS.”
He said the children’s hospital was experiencing high volumes of patients with mental health problems as well as sick youngsters.
“So it really is a collision of the urgent care and the planned care. A perfect storm,” he said.
Mr Woolley said: “While Covid admissions to hospital have declined a little bit in the last few weeks they have not declined rapidly and we are looking at a very challenging winter ahead when we have Covid and other respiratory viruses in circulation.
“The children’s hospital is suffering these pressures now, including respiratory viruses but also a very significant level of demand for children with mental health issues where it is very difficult for us to manage them in hospital in the most effective way but also to discharge them into continuing appropriate care.
“That is very challenging indeed, and that creates issues for all the other children in the children’s hospital as well as for staff and these affected children themselves.”
Mr Woolley said that although the Government had relaxed some Covid restrictions in hospitals, such as the requirement for intensive deep-cleaning of scanners and operating theatres to such an extent, it would have relatively little impact on availability of beds and there was still huge demand for ambulances, A&E and planned care.
Mr Woolley said plans were being drawn up to create alternatives to admission to hospital to ease the pressure.
Julian Dennis, non-executive director and chairman of UHBW’s quality and outcomes committee, said the trust was doing everything it could to try to restore the situation to preCovid levels but the loss of beds to comply with coronavirus restrictions had been “profound”.
He said the problems could only be resolved by the wider Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire healthcare system comprising healthcare providers and local authorities.
“At the moment we have over 100 beds occupied by patients ready to go, and those patients can’t get care packages resolved in the community, they can’t find care in a home,” Mr Dennis said.