Shropshire 12-hour A&E trolley waits fall but are worst in country for third month in a row

The latest NHS England figures, published yesterday, show 187 patients waited more than 12 hours on trolleys in February, while 1,572 patients faced a trolley wait of more than four hours.

The 12-hour breaches at The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH) have more than halved since January, when 411 patients were affected.

The time covers the period when a decision has been made to admit a patient to admission.

The number of people facing waits of more than 12 hours last month was a lot higher when compared with February last year, when 12 patients were affected.

The figures for last month show that 10,945 patients attended the A&E departments at Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and Telford's Princess Royal Hospital, with 63.2 per cent treated and then discharged, admitted or transferred within four hours.

The topic was also discussed by Shropshire Clinical Commissioning Group's board on Wednesday, with health bosses saying RSH had continued to see a number of 12-hour trolley wait breaches this month.

Dr Julie Davies, director of performance at Shropshire CCG, told the board: "We saw a significant increase in December and January.

Concern

"The numbers did come down in February but there still have been 12-hour breaches in Royal Shrewsbury in March, but the numbers are reducing.

"Certainly from the CCG point of view, we are pushing the trust as hard as we can.

"There remains a concern I think that we may well have normalised some of that, we are certainly keen to make sure that's not the case; that this absolutely should be by exception."

She said that message has been supported by NHS England and NHS Improvement.

Dr Davies added: "We were concerned about the level in January considering actually the relative demand dropped in January, and yet we still had a significant number of 12-hour trolley breaches.

"We saw that position improve in February, although demand did increase slightly.

"The hospitals seem to be managing better at Princess Royal; the vast majority of the 12-hour breaches, I think all bar one month to date in March, have all been at RSH again."

She said the cause of the breaches has been put down to issues in capacity, as well as systems and processes.

A report to the CCG board said desktop reviews of patient records have been introduced to assess any "delayed harm" experienced during their hospital stay as a result of extended trolley waits.

The CCG's quality team is also making regular visits to both hospitals.

Nigel Lee, chief operating officer at SaTH, said: “Like many hospitals, we experience a high number of people coming to our emergency departments and I would like to apologise to any patients who have faced a longer wait for treatment in recent weeks.

“Patients are assessed on arrival at A&E and prioritised in accordance with their clinical need. Due to the large numbers of people seeking emergency care, we are sorry that this means some patients waiting longer than they should in our A&Es.

“We continue to make use of additional cubicles and bed spaces to ensure patients are seen and treated as soon as possible.

“The challenges we face are well-known and require a long-term strategic solution. In the meantime, we continue to work with our partners both in the NHS and in social care to best cope with the demand we are seeing.”

Nigel added: “We opened a new 25-bed therapy-led ward/discharge lounge this week. By being able to provide a therapy-led ward, we will be able to reduce the length of stay for those patients who no longer need the specialist care that acute hospitals provide. It will also free up more bed space to help reduce pressure on our very busy emergency department.”