David Loughton, Chief Executive of The Royal Wolverhampton Hospitals NHS Trust (RWT) and Jeremy Vanes, Chairman, RWT will be in attendance to provide a verbal update on the Accident and Emergency (A&E) site opening and progress report.
Minutes:
David Loughton, Chief Executive of the Royal Wolverhampton Hospitals NHS Trust (RWT) and Jeremy Vanes Chairman, RWT were in attendance to provide a verbal update on the Accident and Emergency (A&E) site opening and progress report.
The Chairman RWT advised that just under £38,000 had been invested in equipment in the new A&E. He advised that the contract started in June 2014 and that the new A&E at New Cross hospital was three times as big as the old A&E. He confirmed the following:
· The contract was completed in October on time on price or just under and that the first patient had been seen at 4am 24 November 2016 right on the timetable.
· The bed capacity is improved and additional facilities including an eye emergency waiting room, rooms to talk to relatives, a better ambulance bay, separate entrance for paediatrics and a café by the new entrance.
· The benefits of the shared primary care area, the ten bed clinical support unit, seminar rooms set ups and the command centres.
· The branch links the heart and trauma unit.
· The build is of high quality and has solar panels on the roof.
· The turnover in A&E is on average two and a half hours.
· There are 300 staff work in A&E, staff training, new teams and new approach are resulting in some teething issues and staff morale has dipped.
· Patient demand is really high.
· The gains from the A&E refurbishment are:
o More space
o Separation – more single bays are working much better.
o Senior service decisions are working well with junior staff seeing the senior staff in action and gaining invaluable insight.
· The number of people attending A&E is on the increase:
o 2013-14 : 293 people a day
o 2014-15 : 321 people a day
o 2015-16 : people a day
· 18 % increase last year, this year to date 422 people.
· Vacancies are high and have to use locums.
· Continuously advertising for Doctors and nurses.
· Staff sickness levels have gone up slightly.
The Chairman RWT advised that Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) did an announced visit recently resulting in some amendments and adjustments. He advised that the urgent care centre is due to open 1 April 2016, it is expected that it will take the pressure off A&E as the model designed for not very sick patients is designed to do. He invited the panel to visit the facility and have a look around.
· Staff and consultants are working well.
· 67 people waited for over four hours.
· 97% of ambulances released within 15 minutes.
The Chief Executive RWT advised that the buildings were very new and functional. He advised that 170 ambulances were passing through the hospital every day.
The clinical model works brilliantly throughout the whole hospital and meetings with Social Services to turn around some issues around discharge problems had been productive. He advised that bed blocking was not a problem. He advised that the biggest problem was nursing staff shortage; he advised that of the two hundred nurses appointed abroad only three had arrived in the country. The panel considered there was a need to address the issue of speeding up access for nurses into the Country.
The Chief Executive RWT referred to the National shortage of A&E staff; he advised that A&E was not an attractive speciality and that doctors who do start in A&E often move on to other specialities. Panel considered the number of locums working in hospitals, the impact on the team they work with and the career choice many make to be a locum because the re-numeration is higher on a day rate and there is choice of where they work. Dr Helen Hibbs added that a similar situation exists with General Practitioners (GP), Locum GP day rates are more attractive.
The Cabinet Member Health and Wellbeing referred to consultant assistants and secretaries in the A&E department, panel were advised that there are around 11 applicants for every nurse post but that up to 50% of the applications can be dismissed immediately due to lack of qualifications. There followed a discussion about the reduction in training and training costs.
The Chair thanked everyone for their attendance and contribution to the discussion.
Resolved
1. That the update is noted
2. That a paper advising of training costs for nursing staff and doctors at RWT New Cross hospital be submitted to the June 2016 scrutiny panel.