‘Urgent escalations of people being moved from beds to corridors’ occurring weekly at Altnagelvin A&E, says MLA

Derry Journal

Transcript

00:00My department has taken a number of steps to improve patient flow at the

00:04Aldergelvan Area Hospital. An enhanced minor injury unit was opened in March of

00:09this year. It is a phone first led service. It operates from 8 o'clock in

00:15the morning to 9 o'clock at night, seven days a week. And it's my expectation this

00:20unit will see some 20,000 minor injury patients per year, thus 20,000 people

00:27avoiding the need to attend the emergency department. My department has

00:31also commissioned an enhancement to the Aldergelvan ambulatory care unit,

00:35operating from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. every day, seven days a week. It is expected to

00:40provide almost 20,000 bookable appointments a year. A consultant-led

00:44respiratory hub is also available, with clinics operating two and a half days a

00:48week, offering capacity for 1,200 patients each year, as well as providing

00:53seven-day respiratory consultation cover for the emergency department and

00:58inpatients referral. Western Health and Social Care Trust has established a

01:03control room in the hospital to proactively manage the flow of patients

01:06through the hospital site and into community services. And a discharge

01:11coordination team is promoting earlier discharges and improved weekend

01:15discharge rates for patients who have been assessed as medically fit. In

01:19addition, the trust is engaged with GP practices to embed direct referral

01:23pathways from primary care into the hospital-at-home service. Work between

01:28the trust and care homes is also helping to avoid admissions for residents, with

01:32plans in place to manage agreed conditions by care home providers. As

01:37well as redesigning seven general residential beds to increase capacity

01:41for patients with dementia, the trust will open a further 11 beds for dementia

01:45patients and eight general nursing beds to help improve flow and discharge from

01:51Adelaide. Thank you Minister for the update on the range of measures.

01:59Unfortunately at this moment in time things aren't improving, despite the fact

02:04of we have the minor injuries etc as you've mentioned, and despite the fact on

02:09a weekly basis there is an urgent escalation where people are removed from

02:14their beds onto corridors. Do you believe that additional work needs to be done

02:19regarding any medical gaps regarding specialisms and staff to actually reduce

02:25the number of people? 29% of people are with more than 12 hours of A&E

02:30out in the garden. Well I thank the Member for the supplementary and what I

02:33would say to her is what we're trying to do is remove the second assessment so a

02:38lot of people end up in a hospital because they start off with their GP

02:42where they are assessed and then they're sent to the emergency department of an

02:46acute hospital where they are assessed a second time. I think the future is to do

02:51away wherever possible with the second assessment and for the GP to be

02:56able to refer the patient directly to a specialist service within the hospital

03:00and you will see that some hospitals as well as having emergency departments and

03:04minor injuries units now have urgent care departments and that's what I'm

03:10talking about where you can be referred by a GP directly to an urgent

03:15care department and and the kind of theory behind that is that you do have

03:20more specialists and indeed the future of health care and the past of health

03:25care is a development towards fewer generalists and many many more

03:29specialists and that is the future that is the direction of travel.

03:33Dr. Ergan.

03:35Thank you Minister for his answers. I'd like to commend the heroic efforts of our staff in the

03:40emergency department at Altony Galvan. Could the Minister provide us with an

03:44update on the Western Trust business case for an enhanced emergency department

03:49at Altony Galvan?

03:51Minister. Well I thank the Member for his question. I visited

03:54Altony Galvan a few weeks ago and we looked at some of the new facilities

03:58that are in place there and I was updated on the fact that there is a plan

04:02for a new emergency department. I would have to write to the Member if he's

04:06looking for exact details in terms of where that outline business case is and

04:11what the timeline is for completion.

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