NHS across Cheshire gets a head start in planning for winter
Bosses who oversee Cheshire say the earlier the better
Last updated 1st Aug 2023
The NHS across Cheshire and the North West is getting winter ready by making room for more beds, extra ambulance hours and new infrastructure to get patients out of hospital faster.
Care ‘traffic control’ centres to speed up discharge, extended ambulance hours and extra beds are part of wide-ranging plans to prepare for winter.
"I think what we've learned over recent years is that the earlier you plan, the less likely you come across issues that may then need to be addressed in a rapid way." said Dr. Paula Cowan who oversees Primary Care in Cheshire.
Winter preparations have been well underway since the publication of the NHS’s Urgent and Emergency Care Recovery Plan, with over 800 new ambulances set to be in place to deliver 3.4 million more ambulance road hours as well as 5,000 more sustainable hospital beds and hundreds of new virtual wards each month.
Nationally, the NHS will also be announcing a new incentive scheme to encourage local teams to ‘overachieve’ on performance and receive part of a £150m capital fund for 2024/25. Trusts will receive a greater proportion of funding if they achieve an average of 80% A&E four-hour performance in Q4 and have less than 5% of handovers over 30 minutes in the last half of this financial year.
With more than 12,000 patients every day in hospital despite being medically fit for discharge, a nationwide rollout of ‘care traffic control’ centres will provide one stop for staff to locate and co-ordinate the best and quickest discharge options for patients – either at home or into social or community care.
NHS England North West Regional Medical Director Dr Michael Gregory said:
“Across the North West there are regularly 2,000 people in a hospital bed who no longer need the services only a hospital can provide, speeding up their discharge will help the ability for A&Es to see, treat and admit patients quickly.”
In the North West all Trusts already have Care Transfer hubs and a new service put in place at Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust earlier this year has already seen positive results.
Last winter in the North West additional acute respiratory infection hubs were created in 70 sites across the region, which were able to deliver an additional 95,000 appointments.
Since £250million of funding was announced in January to boost capacity and speed up discharge, local NHS areas are on track to create an additional 900 beds.
North West Ambulance Service also confirms that it will have 46 new emergency ambulances this year, growing the fleet by 28. They are also planning for seven new mental health response vehicles which will be operational by early 2024.
Dr Gregory added:
“This winter we are planning early to ensure we have as much time as possible to prepare. We want patients to receive the right care, in the right place at the right time.”