£645k shot in the arm to ease pressure on A&E
Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust (MTW) has been awarded £645,000 to ease pressure on its accident and emergency departments.
Last Thursday Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt announced £20.74million of funding to 27 hospitals in England.
Seventy hospitals received £55.98m in April. The money is part of ring-fenced spending announced in the Spring Budget.
Mr Hunt said: “The NHS prepares well in advance for winter each year, but despite the hard work and dedication of staff, demand on services continues to increase as a result of our ageing population.
“This vital investment will help MTW change the way it assesses and sees patients so people are given the most appropriate medical care as quickly as possible.”
The money will be used to help hospitals equip themselves ahead of winter, particularly to handle the large volumes of patients attending accident and emergency services.
Hospitals will be able to stream patients when they arrive in the emergency department, with a clinician assessing their needs and deciding where they can receive the most appropriate care.
It will also allow MTW to build GP practices within its A&E departments at Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells hospitals, where patients with less urgent needs can receive treatment.
At the beginning of the year Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells hospitals admitted 3,428 patients from emergency wards, up 17.5% from the same period on 2016.
On January 2 the trust declared a major alert cancelling non- urgent operations such a cataract surgery and calling in extra staff. It apologised to those left waiting for treatment.
NHS England has set targets for A&Es to reach by 2018 which include transferring or discharging 95% of patients within four hours.