Houghton Covid hot hub returns
A coronavirus patient assessment centre will return to Houghton this winter to help those in need of additional care as they recover at home.
During the first wave of Covid-19, NHS chiefs opened two “respiratory assessment units ”, also known as‘ hot hubs’, in Houghton and Pallion.
The facilities aimed to provide safe care to people with Covid-19 symptoms, as well as taking pressure off the emergency department.
As the situation improved over the summer, the hub in Houghton was closed.
Due to increased levels of coronavirus cases, it has has been brought back online.
Health bosses have stressed patients must only attend if referred by their GP or NHS 111, and sent out the message that people should not turn up without an appointment.
“What we’ re doing is opening up ares pi ra tory assessment unit in our Hough ton health centre which I think will provide additional capacity, which will mean that there will be less focus ongoing to Pallion ,” said Philip Foster, managing director of All Together Better.
“We have just been reinforcing the message out of all GP practices about trying to make sure they triage those patients and divert them to those services during those busy periods where they’re most likely to be seen."
The health chief was speaking at a meeting of Sunderland City Council’s Health and Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee, which was held via videolink and broadcast on YouTube.
Mr Foster added: “What we want to avoid is just patients turning up[ to Houghton], we want patients to be sent there rather than just turning up on site.
"That means we will be able to manage that capacity.
“We have also got plenty of capacity through our extended access and through our urgent treatment centre in Pallion to be able to meet the needs of people out of hours who may be coming along with other illnesses which are not Covid related.
“What we’re trying to do is to take that pressure off our emergency department.
"We don’t want our emergency department in the hospital to be used inappropriately, we want to keep that for emergencies only.”
Clare N es bit, director of people and primary care at NHS Sunderland C li nical Commissioning Group, added that the hot hubs were not walk-in services, but aim to reduce pressure on the health system.
Speaking after the meeting, she said: “During the first wave of C ovid -19, we opened two respiratory assessment units – also known as hot hubs – in Houghtonle-Spring and Pallion, and these were helpful in providing safe care to people with Covid symptoms as well as reducing pressure on the emergency department.
“As things improved over the summer, the Houghton unit was closed, but this has now reopened to deal with the increased number of cases.
"This will once again reduce pressure on the emergency department, as well as helping GP practices to run as normally as possible in these difficult circumstances.
“It’s important to be clear that these are not walk-in services, but somewhere you would be referred by your GP or NHS 111.”