Almost one in ten patients waiting to be seen in accident and emergency (A&E) at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton have to wait in a corridor.
And the 9 per cent of patients in the corridor had an average of 45 minutes.
The figures – for August – are better on both counts than figures for the previous two months. In June 14 per cent of patients spent an average of 55 minutes waiting in a corridor and in July 15 per cent of patients waited 52 minutes in average.
Lois Howell, director of clinical governance at Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals, the NHS trust that runs the Royal Sussex, said that the corridor was part of the A&E Department.
This meant that medical staff were able to monitor patients there – unlike those in the waiting area – even though it wasn’t ideal for patients to be in the corridor.
Four new assessment cubicles were now in use and three privacy screens had been bought for use in the corridor with three more on order.
The Brighton University-educated director told members of Brighton and Hove City Council that the trust was still struggling to see A&E patients within four hours. The national target is to see 95 per cent of emergency patients within four hours and for no patient to wait longer than 12 hours.
In April 84.2 per cent of patients were seen within the four-hour target and in May the figure rose to 86.3 per cent.
But in June it fell to 85.1 per cent, in July it was 84.1 per cent and in August it was 81.27 per cent, rising in September to 82.4 per cent.
The number of patients waiting longer than 12 hours has improved from 11 in April to none in July and one in each August and September.
Ms Howell told the council’s Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee at Hove Town Hall this afternoon (Wednesday 5 September): “We continue to have a problem with long waits for patients with mental health problems in the emergency department. We are continuing to work with the mental health trust and the CCGs.”
She was explaining the challenges facing the Brighton hospital trust – and what it was doing about them.
The trust was rated inadequate by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in August and placed in special measures.
Medical director Steve Holmberg said that the Royal Sussex A&E had consultants on duty 24 hours a day for seven days a week.
Ms Howell said that the trust had already appointed an improvement director, Alison Tong, who started last week. She is employed by the regulator NHS Improvement which pays her salary.
Councillor Mo Marsh said: “It’s a work in progress, isn’t it!”
