Shropshire hospital trust called to meeting with health secretary over A&E performance
A county hospital trust was summoned to a meeting with the Health Secretary over the poor performances of its A&Es.
It has emerged that Shrewsbury & Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH) was one of five trusts – deemed to be amongst the worst performing in the country, which were ordered to attend the virtual meeting with Victoria Atkins MP earlier this week.
It comes as NHS England has also issued fresh guidance on ambulance handovers, as it looks to crack down on the number of patients waiting for up to ten hours in ambulances outside hospitals.
SaTH operates A&E departments at both of its hospitals – Princess Royal Hospital in Telford, and Royal Shrewsbury Hospital.
They have frequently been in the worst performing across the country in recent months, with patients facing lengthy waits in A&E, while ambulance patients have also seen significant delays in being handed over to hospital.
The issue is exacerbated by problems the hospitals have in discharging healthy patients, with a lack of spaces and help available for their discharge.
That in turn means fewer beds are available, blocking up the flow through the hospital, and leaving people waiting at A&E.
Briefings say the Health Secretary told the trusts called to the meeting that the performance was not acceptable, and they would be monitored over the winter.
It is understood that the trusts used the meeting to explain some of the issues they were facing, and their own efforts to tackle the situation.
The three weeks up to December 10 saw ambulance crews waiting a total of 2,550 hours at SaTH's hospitals.
In an effort to deal with the issue of handover delays NHS England has also brought in new protocols which mean that national teams should be contacted when patients have been waiting in an ambulance for eight hours.
The measure is intended to cut out ten hour waits, although guidance actually states patients should be handed over from ambulance crews to A&E within 15 minutes.
Responding to the fresh guidance local health bosses said they are "committed" to meeting the new requirements.
Vanessa Whatley, Interim Chief Nursing Officer for NHS Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin, said: "We welcome NHS England's new strategy for managing long ambulance handover delays and are committed to meeting the requirements set out by the Department of Health and Social Care.”
A spokesman for the Department of Health and Social Care said it was working to improve the situation with emergency care across the country.
He said: "We have prepared for winter earlier than ever before and we are making progress in cutting both A&E waits and ambulance response times.
"Compared to last November, average Category 2 ambulance response times for emergencies including heart attacks or strokes were almost 10 minutes faster this year.
"We know there is more to do and that’s why we’re working to get 800 new ambulances on the road and create 5,000 extra permanent hospital beds, on top of 10,000 hospital at home beds already rolled out, to free up hospital capacity and cut waiting times."
