Hospital emergency? You just have to wait at home!
PATIENTS will ‘queue’ at home instead of being sent to A&E in a drastic plan to ease pressure on the NHS this winter.
To cut the numbers waiting at casualty departments, hospital bosses have launched a scheme that will see patients stay at home until they can be seen.
They say some patients who are normally sent to A&E by GPs can actually be ‘safely delayed’ in their own homes until the next day, so long as their condition is ‘stable’.
The move is being trialled by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (NHSGGC) and other areas, but last night critics described the plans as ‘alarming’.
A&E departments are under crippling pressure each winter and have consistently failed on waiting time targets.
Unveiling the move in its winter plan, NHSGGC insists it ‘is in no way an attempt to refuse admission’ to patients – but to keep them ‘comfortable’ instead of ‘in a queue’.
Rather than GPs sending patients to A&E, ‘a small subset’ will be assessed over the phone by a senior hospital nurse and they will be brought in, in some cases by a booked ambulance, the next day.
Once at hospital they will attend an assessment unit, instead of A&E, where they will be seen by nurses or doctors.
The move means they are not even admitted to A&E – so their waiting time will not be counted in the official waiting time figures.
Typical patients included in the trial will be those with pre-existing medical conditions such as asthma, who suffer a worsening of their symptoms.
The Winter Plan states: ‘It is hoped [the trial] will contribute to a reduced strain on the department at peak times.’
The move is being trialled at Glasgow Royal Infirmary and Paisley’s Royal Alexandra Hospital, as well as other areas of the country. Latest A&E figures show that, for the week ending November 27, only 92.9 per cent of patients in Scotland were treated within four hours, compared to a target of 95 per cent.
A total of 139 patients faced a wait of more than eight hours.
The NHS is now subject to weekly reporting of A&E waiting times after departments hit a crisis last year, when patients’ conditions deteriorated while they waited.
In one week alone last year, almost 200 people had to spend more than 12 hours queueing on trolleys in A&E departments as hospitals ran out of beds.
Scottish Conservative health spokesman Donald Cameron said: ‘The health board is right to look at ways of easing the pressure on casualty, particularly during the winter. However, this cannot come at the expense of patient safety.
‘It would be entirely unacceptable if a patient languished at home in desperate need of care because they had been told to park their condition for 24 hours.
‘Hospitals also need to be careful they aren’t simply shoving people further down the line, which means A&E jams are delayed rather than avoided altogether.’
Scottish Labour health spokesman Anas Sarwar said: ‘This looks like a plan to take pressure off A&E wards ahead of a busy winter, but it will be alarming to patients.
‘The public will expect robust standards for those who are referred under this system so that their condition is not at risk of becoming worse overnight.’
A spokesman for NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said: ‘The pilot is designed to deliver more efficient treatment to patients who present to their GP with an existing condition that they feel is worsening.
‘The GP will contact the medical or the surgical unit to decide on the best pathway for the patient.
‘This is designed to ensure the patient is progressed straight to the most appropriate unit and prevent any unnecessary hospital admissions.’
A Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde’s pilot will look at how consultations with patients under treatment from their GP for an existing condition can be managed more efficiently, at the right time, in the right place and by the right person while avoiding unnecessary admissions to hospital.
‘However, should a patient feel their health is worsening and hospital treatment may be required they should attend hospital.’