More than half of A&E patients at St Mary’s Hospital were kept waiting for more than four hours last month.
During December, 1,269 patients — 52 per cent of the number who attended the emergency department — waited for more than four hours to be admitted or discharged.
Busy workloads
It was a busy festive period for the Isle of Wight NHS Trust. It published two appeals on its Facebook page — one on 28th December and the other on New Year’s Eve — asking nurses and health care assistants who were not scheduled to work to come in and help out.
New urgent treatment centre
However, the opening of a new urgent treatment centre, for patients with minor ailments, helped alleviate some of the pressure.
All 2,594 patients at the new unit were seen within the four hour target time.
Improvements over recent months
Across all the emergency care departments at St Mary’s Hospital, 74.8 per cent of patients were seen within four hours — an improvement on 72.6 per cent in November and 70.9 per cent in October.
Nationally, only 79.8 per cent of patients were seen within four hours.
NHS Trust: A challenging time
A spokesperson for Isle of Wight NHS Trust said:
“Winter is always a challenge for the NHS and we continue to see an increase in the number of people attending our emergency department, many of whom are very unwell.
“Our new urgent treatment centre, which treats people with minor illness and injury, is relieving some of the pressure on the emergency department.
“Supporting people to leave hospital as soon as they are able to is an important part of improving our performance against the national targets for urgent and emergency care.
“We apologise unreservedly to anyone who may have experienced a long wait and want to reassure our community that we are working really hard see and treat people as quickly as possible.
“Local people can help us reduce waiting times in A&E by ensuring that they call 111 to get advice before travelling and only use 999 or attend A&E in a genuine emergency.”
This article is from the BBC’s LDRS (Local Democracy Reporter Service) scheme, which OnTheWight is taking part in. Some alterations and additions may be been made by OnTheWight. Ed
Image: lydiashiningbrightly under CC BY 2.0
