Elderly patients ‘face longest waits’
HEALTH: Elderly patients admitted to hospitals in the region face the longest waits in the country before leaving. A review by the Care Quality Commission found one patient was in hospital in Leeds for nine months despite being fit to leave.
ELDERLY PATIENTS admitted to leading hospitals in the region face the longest waits in the country before they can leave, a report warns today.
A review by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) found one patient had been in hospital in Leeds for nine months despite being fit to leave.
Inspectors uncovered “multiple examples of people having poor experiences” in the city’s hospitals, with one in 10 elderly people spending at least four weeks on busy wards.
Services were “under pressure and far more people stayed in hospital than needed to”, they said. “Hospital wards were full and the average length of stay was the highest in the country.”
It comes as leading doctors have warned that Yorkshire hospitals are now under “massive stress”, despite official figures published yesterday showing an improvement in waiting times.
Meanwhile, the latest review ordered by Health and Social Care Secretary Matt Hancock is one of a series investigating how elderly people are being dealt with by hospitals, community health services, GPs, care homes and homecare agencies in England.
Inspectors said good community support in Leeds meant fewer elderly people attended A&E but once they did, they were more likely to be admitted to hospital and it then became more difficult for them to return home.
They said patients were moved multiple times and held on wards which were not designed to support them.
In checks carried out in October, a unit at St James’s Hospital designed to make quick decisions about patients was holding onto them for up to a week due to a shortage of beds on wards.
“This impacted upon people as the area was very crowded with little privacy and dignity,” the report said. In interviews with staff, they said “we did not feel that there was a sense of urgency about enabling people to return home”.
NHS England figures released yesterday show ambulance handover delays, overcrowding on wards and long stays in hospital all improved on the previous week.
But Halifax-based Consultant Dr Nick Scriven, president of the Society for Acute Medicine, warned the figures “don’t show the whole picture,” with bed occupancy in hospitals remaining at dangerous levels.
He said: “As we approach the holiday season the pressure on the frontline of healthcare is ever-increasing.”
Dr Scriven said some hospitals had bed occupancy rates of around 99 per cent, suggesting dangerous overcrowding.
It hit the 99 per cent mark at Wakefield-based Mid Yorkshire Hospitals Trust, which had 70 beds closed by norovirus on December 13.
Discharges in Leeds, the latest CQC report said, were hampered by a shortage of nursing home beds in the city, including one patient with complex needs “trapped” in hospital after being turned down by 14 care homes.
However, the report also found that collaboration between frontline community staff was a “real strength” in the city and inspectors also praised the support available for patients with dementia.
Julian Hartley, Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust chief executive, said: “We know we need to improve our discharge processes for our patients.”
Work was underway to simplify discharges which would help “relieve pressure on our hospitals which are often incredibly busy”, he said.
The average length of stay was the highest in the country.
Care Quality Commission review report.