Hospital in waiting times breach (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Hospital in waiting times breach

8:52am Thursday 1st March 2007 in Swindon By Gazette Reporter

The Great Western Hospital broke national A&E waiting targets when two patients had to wait more than 12 hours to be seen.

The breach happened on Tuesday morning.

GWH chief executive Lyn Hill-Tout said that on Monday more than 200 people visited A&E and more patients than usual needed to be admitted.

The hospital saw a 20 per cent increase in the number of people needing to be admitted, which, it says, accounted for almost a third of an entire ward.

And because the department was so full it meant some ambulances had to queue outside for more than an hour.

There have been similar peaks in the last four weeks, which have put the GWH under strain.

"The A&E team have done a magnificent job in dealing with the surge of patients and ensuring they are safely treated," said Ms Hill-Tout.

"However, Tues-day morning we had two patients whose wait in the A&E department exceeded the national 12-hour target.

"Since midnight on Monday, seven ambulances had to wait before transferring their patient into A&E for times ranging from a maximum of one hour 10 minutes to 10 minutes."

If a patient has to wait in an ambulance, they are cared for by paramedics and are assessed by A&E staff who will ensure they are safe and transfer anyone who is a clinical priority, she said.

And Ms Hill-Tout has condemned critics who say the hospital is making patients wait to manipulate its targets.

"I absolutely refute any suggestion that patients are kept in ambulances to massage our figures for meeting target times," she said.

"Patient care is and always will be our prime concern and no patient's care or safety will ever be compromised in order to improve our statistics.

"Obviously, we are working closely with the ambulance service and Primary Care Trusts to ease the pressures and are doing all we can to ensure the prompt and safe transfer of patients so we can minimise inconvenience to patients and return the ambulance crews to active' duty.

"An ambulance liaison officer is on site and is reviewing how we can manage the peaks and troughs in demand."

Earlier this month the Advertiser reported that ambulances had to queue for hours outside A&E.

All four of the vehicles which serve the town on a daily basis had to wait because the hospital's emergency department was full.

"The Great Western Hospital has been under considerable pressure for a number of weeks, largely due to increasing numbers of very sick people attending the A&E department," said Ms Hill-Tout.

"Many of those being admitted are suffering from breathing problems or chest pain and simply cannot be treated and sent home.

"With such high numbers of sick people needing hospital treatment this has put pressure on our beds which has meant, on occasions, that we have been unable to immediately transfer patients from the A&E department into beds within the main hospital."

The hospital is liaising with the Ambulance Trust and the Clover Unit to try to relieve some of the pressure on the depa