Quarter of A&E patients ought to stay away
Minor ailments causing needless strain on NHS
A QUARTER of walk-in patients at A&E units in Yorkshire demand treatment for minor ailments, new research has found.
Experts say many could be treated at GP surgeries, urgent care centres or even stay at home rather than seek help for non-urgent complaints by putting further demands on already hardpressed casualty staff.
But the study also uncovered evidence that pressures in “overstretched” parts of the NHS could be driving patients to casualty units, with surveys suggesting half of arrivals had been told to attend by other health staff.
Rising demand, coupled with increasing staff shortages, has led to a significant worsening in A&E treatment times in recent years amid fears the coming winter could trigger a rapidly-escalating crisis.
Experts at Sheffield University looked at 1.3 million nonambulance arrivals by patients at 19 casualty units in the region, which accounted for 75 per cent of total A&E attendances over 12 months.
Figures showed 23 per cent of adults and 31 per cent of children walking in for treatment did not need A&E care although there were significant variations across the region.
Around 30 per cent of adults with non-urgent problems could have been treated outside A&E instead of visiting Calderdale Royal Hospital in Halifax and Huddersfield Royal Infirmary but this fell to just 10 per cent of those travelling to Scarborough’s hospital, according to the analysis of non-ambulance arrivals at A&E units in Yorkshire in 2014.
Researchers found people had become “more demanding of the healthcare system, particularly amongst younger generations”.
Large numbers of patients were coming to emergency departments with non-urgent complaints which could be treated by GPs, walk-in centres, or by selfcare at home.
“There seems an unwillingness or inability by patients to manage their own risk with increased concern that health problems are serious and a desire for rapid reassurance,” they said.
“These patients present an additional burden for emergency departments, taking resources away from patients who are sicker and require the specialist resources of an emergency department.”
But a survey of nearly 500 walk-in patients carried out last year for the study found half of arrivals had been advised to go to A&E by other health workers.
These patients present an additional burden A report by Sheffield University experts into Yorkshire’s casualty units.
Some 35 per cent said GP practice staff had advised them to attend – three times as many as a similar poll in 1997.
Staff interviewed by researchers said patients were more demanding but regularly reported difficulties getting GP appointments, as well as accessing dental or mental healthcare.
Researchers said the findings could reflect a “system under great strain”. They recommended better training for GPs to assess and treat children and greater adoption of co-locating GPs in A&E units.
THE TONE adopted by Northern Powerhouse Minister Jake Berry during Parliament’s debate on Yorkshire devolution irked many of those present – and all those here who want this region to shape its destiny.
The Minister’s position threatens to leave this county with the worst of both worlds – the election of a metro-mayor in Sheffield City-Region next May that Barnsley and Doncaster don’t want as well as no further advancement of the One Yorkshire leadership model. What next?
First, there’s recognition that Yorkshire will lose out to rival regions if the status quo persists or a botched plan introduced that becomes mocked. Yet, while the national media is, belatedly, realising the importance of the issue, and what a Yorkshirewide devolution deal could actually mean to both the county and country, The Yorkshire Post’s editorial on Tuesday – and later referenced in the House of Commons by Keighley MP John Grogan – did warn that the debate would be viewed as “a litmus test which will define the future relationship between ministers and Yorkshire”.
And, while Mr Berry appeared to fail this test with his abrasiveness at the Despatch Box and refusal to even consider the One Yorkshire blueprint publicly backed by 17 out of 20 councils at its launch, the mood between the key protagonists was more conciliatory afterwards.
This matters – even though less than onethird of Yorkshire’s 56 MPs were present for such an important debate. This should not be about party politics – and whether a county-wide mayor, or up to four metro-mayors, gives the Conservatives, or Labour, the upper hand in terms of electoral influence. Much of the current impasse is because of this, and it is time other stakeholders, be it the business community, trade unions, universities, church or others, exert their considerable influence.
It should, however, be about the future prosperity of England’s largest county; how its many strengths can be maximised and how Yorkshire can become the key economic engine that turbo-charges the Northern Powerhouse. This is the size of the prize and this week’s exchanges must not detract from the importance of ongoing efforts to meet the needs of Yorkshire’s industrial heartlands, ambitious towns and its rural and coastal communities alike.
To his credit, George Osborne, the former Chancellor, began this process – the criticism is that he, and his colleagues, became too fixated on cityregions which work in some areas, but which could, in turn, lead to a duplication of effort in a county where the ‘Yorkshire’ brand has global reach.
Yet, while Mr Grogan’s invitation to the Archbishop of York to act as an honest broker is a helpful one, the real power in the UK rests with the Treasury and Mr Osborne’s successor, Philip Hammond, has intimated a desire to look at the issue afresh because he knows that a prosperous Yorkshire is actually in the national economic interest.
It falls to him to ensure that neither this county, or the Government, comes to regret the stance adopted by Mr Berry – the future prosperity of families, and businesses, alike hinge on the outcome.