Shropshire's hospitals are 'ready for winter'

A new locum consultant doctor has been recruited to help ease pressures at A&E at both Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and Princess Royal Hospital, according to chief executive Simon Wright.

At a meeting of the Joint Health Overview Scrutiny Committee Mr Wright said the consultant was due to begin work in about a week.

Mr Wright also told the meeting, held at The Wakes in Oakengates yesterday, that, while the hospitals normally expect to see winter pressures start in December, it appears to have begun a month earlier.

But he assured the meeting that the hospitals were well prepared. As part of the preparations a Clinical Decision Unit (CDU) has been opened at PRH. The CDU is for patients who don’t need to be admitted to hospital, but do need to be at the hospital for more than four hours to have treatments completed or observations taken over a period of time to make sure they are well enough to return home.

An Urgent Care Centre (UCC) has also opened at PRH. The UCC, next to A&E, opened on Saturday and is seeing patients with minor ailments and problems that don’t need the expertise of staff in the Emergency Department. It is open from 10am to 10pm daily and is manned by GPs and Urgent Care Practitioners.

At RSH, a discharge lounge will be opened in the day room on Ward 32 Short Stay on Monday.

It will be open from 9am to 9pm, seven-days-a-week and is for patients who are ready for discharge and ‘fit to sit’ prior to leaving the hospital. This will free-up beds which would otherwise be unavailable.

Speaking outside the meeting, Mr Wright said: “We have been planning for this winter for a long time and have put in a number of measures to help us cope over this very busy period. On top of this, we are absolutely delighted to have secured the services of an additional locum consultant in our A&Es.”

“Our hospitals have been very busy for a number of weeks, but this week it is beginning to feel like winter has arrived. We are seeing large numbers of people attending our A&Es and also a lot of people presenting with respiratory problems, who need admitting for further treatment.

“In the first three days of this week, we have already seen more than 1,000 people through the doors of our two A&Es.”