Hospital ready for extended A&E shut-down
NORTH Staffordshire's accident unit is gearing up to treat more diverted patients if Stafford Hospital keeps its own A&E shut at nights.
The intended three-month closure has already been extended by a further three months to May, meaning hundreds more patients have instead been treated at the Hartshill complex.
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EMERGENCY PLAN: University Hospital chief executive Julia Bridgewater has opened an extra ward at the A&E unit to cope with the night-time closure at Stafford.
Now the University Hospital of North Staffordshire (UHNS) has guaranteed its contingency arrangements can continue to cope with the extra work if the crisis drags on ever longer.
Stafford Hospital initially shut its unit between 10pm and 8am for three months from December 1 because a shortage of doctors was threatening the safety of patients.
Then last week it announced the restrictions would stay until mid-May, because, while enough consultants had been recruited, there was still a lack of middle-grade doctors.
UHNS chief executive Julia Bridgewater revealed yesterday her trust had temporarily opened an extra ward, recruited two more A&E junior medics on to night rotas and kept its minor injuries unit open until midnight to treat the patients from Stafford.
She told Stoke-on-Trent City Council adults and neighbourhood scrutiny committee: "We needed to put things in place to make sure patients from North Staffordshire were not affected and we have done that successfully.
"If Stafford A&E does not re-open at night in May, we can keep those contingencies.
"We could cope with the closure being extended, so long as we continue to enjoy financial support from our commissioners for this extra capacity."
Referring to the current drive to cut nearly 300 beds at UHNS ready for the opening of its smaller £400 million superhospital, she added: "Numbers coming in from Stafford are having no material impact on that programme.
"In fact it has taught us lessons about how we can repatriate people to their home hospital."
The committee heard how an average of six patients a night are being diverted from Stafford to Hartshill; around half the numbers forecast.
A total of 369 people have so far been transferred there, including 286 by ambulance.
And while UHNS had been told to expect to treat 66 per cent of all the displaced Stafford patients, only 35 percent have arrived as ambulance crews try to spread the load between other hospitals.
Asked by committee member Ann James if the Stafford influx had caused local A&E waiting times to increase, Mrs Bridgewater said: "We are the busiest unit in the West Midlands with 300 patients a day.
"At peak times we can see 70 people in two hours so the increase from Stafford represents a very small fraction.
"We have a responsibility to the North Staffordshire population, but we also have a wider responsibility to the NHS when there are issues in other hospitals affecting patient safety."
Tracey Shewan, from the county's primary care trusts, said: "We are looking for a sustainable solution for Stafford; the last thing we need is for it to re-open and then have the same problems and shut again."
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