Beds to be ‘reconfigured’ at Telford’s Princess Royal Hospital ready for winter pressures
A major change in the way some beds are used at Telford’s Princess Royal Hospital (PRH) will “make a real difference” this winter, a meeting was told.
Chiefs at the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospitals NHS Trust (SaTH) are planning to use the former rehabilitation and recovery Ward 36 at PRH for general medicine.
They are also wanting to develop Apley Ward to provide more capacity for the expansion of the acute medical area and to increase same-day emergency care capacity.
Chiefs are also creating a new frailty same-day emergency care area specifically for one of their most vulnerable client groups.
A meeting in Telford was told last week that the overall plan for the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and for PRH is to find alternatives to the admission of in-patients, especially this winter.
Gareth Wright, winter planning director at NHS Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin, said: “Our main effort this winter is to decompress our emergency departments [EDs] because if the emergency department gets overwhelmed that’s when we have patients that are in the wrong care space and when safety and quality care is compromised.”
He said GPs and carers in the community will be asked to “find alternatives to the emergency department in the first place”.
Mr Wright told Telford & Wrekin Council’s Heath and Wellbeing Board that they will have a “co-ordinator at the front door” of emergency departments who will “try to identify patients that could be taken out to community service rather than the ED and possibly be embedded”.
“That’s the overriding principle.”
Mr Wright told the meeting that the health system is “two months further on” in its winter planning than it was last year.
“This time last year we hadn’t received direction from NHS England for winter,” he said.
“That was attributed to the change of Government in London deciding how they wanted to approach winter.
“That put us all on the back foot last year. We’re pleased to say we are two months ahead now.”
He added that health leaders have had “very comprehensive directions” this year and “I welcome that”.
Mr Wright told councillors that in his opinion the “reconfiguration of the bed base is very significant”.
“It’s more than just moving departments around the hospital.
“By putting more into assessment spaces and acute medicine that will give us an opportunity to not admit patients.”
Mr Wright told the committee that patients last year were being placed in the now closed rehabilitation units rather than finding care packages.
“We were finding that that we were sometimes putting patients in those beds because it was quicker to do that than to send them home with an effective package of care,” he said.
“That was blocking beds up with wrong patients and that is partly why this reconfiguration will just give us a faster turnover and a more appropriate use of the beds.”
Ned Hobbs, SaTH chief operating officer, said: “Our urgent and emergency care improvement plans include the significant expansion of our acute medical and same-day emergency care capacity at Princess Royal Hospital, as well as the opening of 56 new acute inpatient beds at Royal Shrewsbury Hospital later this year.
“The aim is to improve the experience of our patients who need urgent and emergency care, including those who do not need a hospital admission, and ensure they are receiving timely care in the right place.”
The NHS Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin system winter plan will be presented to the Integrated Care Board this Wednesday (September 24).
The board also has to submit a statement of assurance to NHS England by September 30, which is a national requirement for all ICBs and NHS trusts this year.
