Bed-blocking putting Sussex hospitals under 'unprecedented pressure'
Extra steps are being taken to discharge patients sooner
Extra measures are being taken to prevent bed-blocking at hospitals across Sussex, as the county's main hospital trust warns it remains under 'unprecedented pressure'.
232 patients are currently medically ready to be discharged at the University Hospitals Sussex trust's four sites, including at St Richard's Hospital in Chichester and the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton.
Bosses have been forced to postpone non-emergency operations in order to take the pressure off staff.
In a statement, the trust also said it's treating rising numbers of Covid patients in beds across its hospitals, putting extra pressure on those in critical care due to the need to care for them in dedicated areas.
Families are now being urged to help the trust by seeking appropriate health advice through their GP, NHS 111 or local pharmacy.
Dr Maggie Davies, Chief Nurse at University Hospitals Sussex said:
“Unfortunately, this does mean postponing some non-urgent operations and outpatient appointments to accommodate those patients with the most urgent clinical need.
“We will continue to prioritise cancer and our other most urgent operations and appointments and are in the process of contacting those patients whose appointments are being postponed.
"We know it is distressing for people when operations are delayed and we are doing everything we can to ease pressures.”
What's being done to ease the pressure?
• Postponing some less urgent clinical work and reallocating staff as required to support essential services.
• Senior leaders will be working with teams across the hospitals and with system partners to review capacity, patients and to escalate issues and plan safe discharges
• Postponing some planned procedures in order to create space for patients needing urgent care.
• Launching a week long, multi-agency discharge event in line with system partners and the national requirement to discharge 30% of medically ready for discharge patients by this Friday (14 January) and 50% by 31 January.
• Developing detailed surge plans and asking for additional support at a national level to be able to staff additional clinical areas.
• Standing down non-essential meetings to maximise the number of colleagues available to work in clinical roles.
Dr Maggie Davies added:
“Our teams and community partners continue to work exceptionally hard, keeping things moving and getting our patients discharged in a timely way to create additional beds for patients who need them.
"Once patients are medically ready to leave hospital, we need their families, carers or social care settings to support them as much as necessary to be able to go home safely.”