NHS IN CRISIS
intervention radiology for example.
The catchment areas are different and certainly there is a larger elderly population in Hairmyres catchment and also its proximity to Glasgow has seen an increase in the number of attendances.
That is not the case at the other two sites. They have all had their challenges but we work as a system of three hospitals so we have conference calls between the sites and discuss where pressures are greatest from one day to the next and we can divert demand accordingly if one site is busier than the other.
We try and manage it is a whole system of three hospitals and deal with peaks and troughs through that.
Ambulances were spotted on two occasions queuing outside hospitals. What were the reasons leading to this and could they have been prevented?
A&E has been very busy because of what we call acuity of illness of patients. Moving patients through A&E if quite seriously ill when arriving, we need time to manage putting in drips, central lines and getting x-rays done.
There can be times at peak demand where ambulances don’t offload patients quite as quickly as they may otherwise do. We have had, I’m sure, days where transfers might be slower than we would expect but generally the focus is moving patients out of the emergency department to the hospital if they require to be admitted.
If you don’t move people home or to community care or care in nursing homes, that’s when hospitals can slow admissions at the‘front door’. We have been working really hard with the local authority to make sure patients are ready for discharge and can go home as soon as they can.
Will there be a review of the last few weeks and what lessons can be learned?
Very much so. We are capturing information from staff about things that worked well, things that could have worked better and we will always review that before we do our plan for next winter. There are always lessons to be had in these situations.
What tribute would you like to pay to NHS staff?
I really feel very passionately about our staff who have pulled out all the stops; people have come in from holidays to help. I would like to thank all the staff for their hard work.
They have worked extremely hard since before Christmas, making sure patients get the treatment and care they require and I am proud of how staff have worked together, also with local authority and social work staff too, in order to do all we could for patients at this challenging time.