Yesterday I spoke to the BBC about the reports revealing Medway Maritime Hospital has been treating significant numbers of patients in corridors.
This is of course disappointing and unacceptable, particularly long term. Again this highlights to us the issues of demand on our local hospital, which can only get worse with the future prospect of an additional approximately 70,000 homes across North Kent in the next twenty years.
Patient numbers are on the rise. For instance, just last week, the Hospital saw 401 patients in one day – one of the highest on record. The emergency department was built for 45,000 patients per year, but is currently seeing more than 100,000.
While there is no excuse for people to be treated in the corridors, actually that process is being managed by the Medway hospital in a way that protects patient safety. The Medway NHS report said all patients treated in the corridor still met acceptable clinical criteria.
However, it is for this reason why the proposal has been made for the redevelopment of the A&E department. The £20m redevelopment will see the amount of bays increase to 24 bays in Majors, 7 bays in resuscitation, and 10 bays in CDU to 41 bays from the current number of 11. This will certainly alleviate the pressures but it will of course take time to come on stream. I will be liaising with both the Hospital and the Department of Health to see where delays can be resolved and progress made.
This matter should also not wholly distract away from the improvements and progress being made by the Hospital to come out of special measures. With increasing demand more people are being seen at A&E within 4 hours, and have the best performance in the South East for ambulance handling within 15mins. While there is still considerable work ahead, I have been encouraged by the measures already taken to patient safety, leadership and staff engagement among senior and middle managers.
Yesterday’s BBC South East report can be viewed via the following link from around 5 minutes: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b07ll30b/south-east-today-late-news-28072016