£1 million funding boost for Shropshire A&Es to ease winter pressure
Shropshire's two main hospitals are to get a £1 million funding boost from the Government in a bid to help ease pressure on their A&E departments this winter, it has been revealed.
The investment has been announced by the Department of Health, which will see £55.98 million of a total £100 million A&E capital funding to ease pressure on emergency departments in time for winter to prevent the departments reaching crisis point.
The capital funding was originally outlined in the spring budget by the Chancellor Philip Hammond.
Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH) is one of 70 hospitals and NHS Trusts to be awarded a slice of the funding.
The funding will be used by hospitals to meet the 95 per cent standard of admitting, transferring, or discharging patients within four hours by ensuring patients are treated in the most appropriate setting.
The plans outlined by trusts include primary care streaming and co-locating GP practices within A&E departments to ensure patients are treated in the most appropriate setting.
In January, patients waited more than 20 hours at Telford's Princess Royal Hospital's accident and emergency department, and before the end of the month 7,000 patients had been seen in total at Shropshire two A&Es – around 300 patients per day.
At the height of the busiest period this winter, SaTH made repeated calls for people to stay away from the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and Princess Royal Hospital unless they had a genuine emergency.
Despite the cash boost, a similar £1 million investment last year failed to help the two hospitals meet their A&E waiting time targets, with about 75 per cent of patients seen within four hours of their A&E attendance during early 2016.
This latest investment is one part of the A&E plan being implemented across the NHS this year to get performance to 95 per cent during 2018.
The A&E crisis in Shropshire continues amid continuing controversy about the stalled Future Fit review and the wish of hospital bosses for a single specialist A&E based at RSH.
Health bosses say the plans are needed because without intervention the "tipping point" on consultant cover will be reached before the Future Fit plans for a single unit is opened.
