Our official winter bed crisis started this week,
previously we had a summer bed crisis.
We feel busier than ever, I think some of this is access
block and some is increased input.
On Wed, 13 Oct 2010 15:08:04 +0100
Steve Meek <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>
> yes, absolutely. Bad since august but on a background of
>a doubling of our
> 'majors' or 'trolley' patients as a proportion of our
>work over the last 4
> years.
> Majors used to be 20% in 2006, now its 40% of our
>attendances. These are mainly
> ambulance cases though not all. Interestingly the number
>of admissions from ED
> has risen by a much smaller amount suggesting these
>patients are not terribly
> unwell and that we are good at admission avoidance. Not
>sure what is causing it
> - the increasing attractiveness of a visit to Frenchay
>by patients and
> paramedics maybe, initiatives such as stroke
>thrombolysis, or as Alan Montague
> puts it in his typically succinct manner 'they are
>building more houses, not
> more hospitals'.
> The further acute rise since August is alarming and
>impacting on patient care:
> the other day we had a queue of ambulance patients which
>was so long the last
> couldn't physically get in the building - I haven't seen
>that depressing sight
> since the pre-ESC days of 2003.
>
> Management, at exec level, are pretending to be deaf
>when we tell them what is
> happening, and simply shuffle the junior managers (if we
>let them) so they can
> pretend they are in control of events.
> I fear for both our patients and staff this winter.
> Steve Meek
>Frenchay
> N Bristol
>
>
> ________________________________
>From: S M Mason <[log in to unmask]>
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Sent: Wed, 13 October, 2010 13:29:22
> Subject: busy times in the ED?
>
> Dear All
> Am just putting this out to see whether you are also
>experiencing unusually busy
> times in your ED? We have noticed a fairly dramatic
>increase in our workload
> which is leaving us struggling for space and virutally
>no bed access. I am
> expecting that other EDs have had the same, but would be
>interested to hear
> from you?
> Thanks and Best Wishes
> Suzanne Mason
> Professor of emergency medicine
> University of Sheffield
>
>
>
>
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