Big improvements cut hospital bed-blocking

HOSPITAL bosses say they have seen “significant” improvements in ambulance delays and the number of people still in hospital despite finishing treatment.

Royal Cornwall Hospital Treliske (RCHT) has had occasions when numerous ambulances have been queued up outside awaiting available beds and hundreds of people stuck in hospital beds as there has not been care available for them outside hospital.

Cornwall Council’s health and adult social care overview and scrutiny committee heard that there had been big improvements in recent weeks. However, RCHT bosses were not confident enough to say that a solution to the problems had been found.

RCHT chief operating officer Robin Jones said: “The position we find ourselves in has changed significantly and positively. There is a step change in where we find ourselves as an organisation. In the last four weeks we have had a reduction in the number of ambulances waiting outside the hospital.”

Mr Jones said that Royal Cornwall Hospital was in the middle of a “rest week” which started on Monday with the aim of improving the flow through the hospital and to further reduce ambulance delays. He said that the hospital was working alongside colleagues at Cornwall Council and Cornwall Partnership NHS Foundation Trust to ease the issues which have been causing problems.

He said that there had been an improvement in delays in getting patients discharged from the hospital once they had completed their treatment.

“There has been improvement in how long patients are staying in hospital waiting for their packages of care. The length of time patients are in our beds is reducing,” he said.