A total of £145 million of capital investment has been prioritised from within the Department of Health`s capital budget for hospitals across the Country to help staff prepare ahead of winter for the anticipated demand for Accident and Emergency services. Of that money £6.48 million has been allocated to the East Kent Hospitals Trust to assist with emergency care capacity. This recognises the fact that due to the efforts and dedication of frontline NHS staff hundreds  more people were seen in A&E and admitted or discharged within four hours every day.

 

There is no doubt, though, that the demands of winter emergencies were, last year, met at the expense of the cancellation of routine but necessary appointments for which patients had been patiently waiting. The planning this year will, to a significant if not total extent, mean that those cancellations for elective treatment , be in large part avoided

 

This winter much planned care, routine and low-risk procedures will be carried out at the Kent and Canterbury Hospital. That is intended to release capacity at both the Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother (Margate) and the William Harvey (Ashford) hospitals to cope with the expected rise in trauma and emergency cases requiring attention through the winter months and, most particularly, in January when , last year, A&E  at the QEQM was receiving up to a hundred ambulance deliveries a day.

 

The capital funding that the Department of Health is making available for East Kent arises from a bid for the installation and staffing , in Ashford and Margate, of observation units. At present A&E units have the ability to either discharge patients and send them home or to admit to hospital beds which, at peak times, can cause congestion, `trolley waits` and delay in treatment. Rightly, medical staff tend to err on the side of caution which means that significant numbers of people are admitted and found, subsequently, not to require in-patient treatment. The creation of observation units, which it is hoped and expected will be up and operational before Christmas because of pre-planning by the Trust , will create an alternative option that will allow doctors to keep patients requiring greater assessment under supervision in a purpose-provided and medically safe unit for long enough to exercise a more considered diagnosis before either safely discharging or admitting them.

 

Having  met, last week, with the Trust`s Chief Executive to discuss these plans I am impressed by the thought and care that has gone into preparation for the eventualities that will inevitably confront our hospitals in January, February and March.  Combined with the new funding from the Department of Health I believe that this detailed planning, while it will not prove infallible or necessarily an answer to all pressures on our health services, will make a very significant difference to the standard and appropriateness of the medical care available throughout East Kent this winter.

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