THE WESTERN Trust is getting set to test out a new scheme that could see residents of local care homes avoid long waits at the SWAH emergency department (ED).
Speaking at a recent media briefing on winter pressure mitigation measures, Trust director of unscheduled care, medicine, cancer and clinical services, Geraldine McKay, pictured right, outlined how the local health system had been under sustained pressure all year.
Ms McKay said the service had seen an increase in demand from those over 75-years-old, who have more complex needs, and require longer stays in hospital.
This is leading to high demand for hospital beds, which in turn leads to long waits in the ED.
“On any given day, you’ll see we manage between 40-60 patients waiting for beds in our emergency department across the Trust each morning,” she said. “This impacts on the ability of our staff to see and triage and assess the volume of patients in our waiting area.”
Among other measures, such setting up coordination hubs or developing a new minor injuries unit at Altnagelvin, Ms McKay said the Trust planned to expand its same day emergency care unit at the SWAH to include “integrated pathways for patients.”
“Particularly patients in care homes, that they avoid the emergency department and we can actually outreach from the hospital to assess and triage those patients within the home itself,” she explained.
When asked to expand on this plan by the Herald, Ms McKay said at the minute the Trust was “just working through the model” but it had the potential to reduce the high number of ED attendances from local care homes. If successful, the SWAH initiative could be rolled out to a wider area.
“We looked at the number of patients who arrive, particularly from care homes, by ambulance,” she said.
“We sat down with our care of the elderly clinicians, we had discussions around what kind of model we would put in place. We hope to have an outreach model or an in-reach model, we hope to have it up and running by January.
“The aim is to reduce those patients having to come to ED at all.”
Ms McKay there may be times when a care home patient needs diagnostic tests, for example, and will need to come into the department. She added the initiative would be clinician led, with all decisions made by “a senior decision-making consultant and a number of middle grades and additional nurses.”
“We don’t want elderly people lying in our emergency departments,” she said.
“It’s a bespoke model, it’ll be a test for the region, and we’re just working through the detail of that at this moment in time, but we hope to have it in place by January.”
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