Western Morning News (Saturday)
‘Winter war room’ will help ease pressure on health system
A central ‘traffic control centre’ has been launched by the NHS in Cornwall in a bid to avert a crisis in care as it gears up for another difficult winter. Lee Trewhela reports
ASYSTEM control centre (SCC), which has been dubbed an NHS “winter war room”, has launched in Cornwall in a bid to tackle pressure on the Duchy’s health system.
One of just over 40 NHS “traffic control centres” in the country, the Cornish nerve centre aims to get patients in and out of hospital more quickly and thus create a steady flow through the Royal Cornwall Hospital (Treliske) and the county’s other hospitals in a hope of reducing the bed blocking which has caused a crisis in recent times.
As Cornwall and the rest of the country gears up for another difficult winter – with cases of Covid, flu, children’s virus RSV and norovirus expected to increase – it’s hoped the co-ordinated work at the system control centre at County Hall in Truro will also help to decrease the number of ambulances queuing outside Treliske’s emergency department (ED).
The move comes amid concerns over long waiting times to admit patients to hospital, with ambulances forced to queue for hours and social care shortages slowing the discharge of those able to leave wards.
The Western Morning News has repeatedly reported on cases of ambulances taking hours to reach patients, many of them elderly, as well as periods when up to 30 ambulances are backed up at Treliske.
The “NHS winter war room” resembles a battle headquarters, but instead of controlling troop movements, a bank of screens collates regularly updated information from various health and care agencies in Cornwall. The data concerns performance in ED, waiting times, staffing levels, ambulance response times in Cornwall and across the whole of the South West, and bed occupancy on every ward at Treliske and the Duchy’s other hospitals.
It will run seven days a week – fully staffed during the day, with on-call arrangements at night.
The SCC is overseen by Susan Bracefield, chief nursing officer with NHS Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Integrated Care Board. She said: “The whole aim of the centre is to get people out of hospital quicker, while ensuring they have ongoing care in the community. It is critical that we do not tip into Opel 4 [the highest level of escalation at the hospital, often known as Black Alert].”
Treliske is currently at Opel 3, but there is a real expectation that it will enter Opel 4 during the winter. “The trick is then to come out of it as quickly as possible and the control centre is there to put those vital mechanisms in place,” she added.
Susan and her team have even had online meetings with healthcare bosses in New Zealand, which has just had its winter, to see what they can learn from the country’s experience.
She added: “The SCC gives us a dynamic risk assessment, which puts us in a much better position and ensures we are not lurching from one crisis to another. It will allow us to track every single patient from the time they come through the front door to their bed state and to when they move on to community services.”
Professor Sir Stephen Powis, NHS national medical director, said: “These locally delivered control centres are just one part of our wideranging preparations for winter but will play a vital role in the sharing and use of vital information to drive smarter decision-making by local NHS teams.
“With recent data hitting home the significant pressure staff are facing – with 10 times the flu cases in hospital than we saw going into winter last year and thousands of beds taken up by patients medically fit for discharge – it has never been more important for the NHS to introduce these important and innovative planning measures ahead of what is likely to be one of our most challenging winters yet.
“The public can play its part by using NHS services in the usual way – dialling 999 in an emergency and using 111 online for other health conditions, and vaccines remain an important protection against serious illness so please come forward if you’re eligible.”
NHS England has previously announced plans to expand response services so people are treated in their homes, avoiding unnecessary trips to hospital where possible. Officials estimate this could free up around 55,000 ambulance trips each year.
Other plans for winter include local “respiratory infections hubs” – which will aim to offer patients same day out-of-hospital care for Covid, flu, acute bronchitis and pneumonia.
Miriam Deakin, director of policy and strategy at NHS Providers, said: “New ‘control centres’ could help ease some of the pressure on urgent and emergency care services at this critical time. However, to work effectively, they should support collaboration by local health and care partners to tackle the multiple challenges of the coming weeks and months.
“Urgent action is also still needed to tackle... the inability to free up capacity by discharging medically fit patients in a safe and timely way.”
‘It will allow us to track every single patient from the time they come through the front door’ SUSAN BRACEFIELD