Two councillors who lead on health and social care are raising residents’ concerns about accident and emergency (A&E) services at the Royal Sussex County Hospital.
Labour councillors Bruno De Oliveira, who chairs Brighton and Hove City Council’s Health and Wellbeing Board, and Tristram Burden, who leads on adult social care, have written to the council’s Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee which is due to meet next Wednesday (10 April).
At the meeting, councillors are expected to review the recent Care Quality Commission (CQC) report after an inspection of surgery and medical care core services at the Royal Sussex, in Eastern Road, Brighton.
The CQC inspectors said that the care provided by staff was outstanding but, in every other respect, the services required improvement.
Councillors De Oliveria and Burden want the committee to quiz hospital trust chief executive George Findlay about issues in A&E when he answers questions about the inspection.
Their letter said: “Multiple people have expressed concerns to us about the situation at A&E. These include general overcrowding and specifically a lack of safe spaces for frail or vulnerable patients.
“We understand that a side corridor is meant to be used as a quiet space but that, in practice, this is frequently employed to manage disruptive patients. This has meant that there is effectively no quiet space for vulnerable patients.
“We have also been told that A&E can be so noisy and chaotic that patients waiting for an initial assessment are unable to hear their names being called and that people have missed being seen for this reason.
“We recognise that the (Royal Sussex) is an intensely pressured environment. We also recognise that the trust has medium-term plans to restructure its emergency department to provide a better environment for patients and staff.
“However, we are very concerned that, in the short term, not enough is being done to manage A&E and that seriously ill people may be deterred from seeking urgent help because of worries about their safety within the hospital.”
The CQC last inspected A&E in 2022 when the department was downgraded from “good” to “requires improvement”.
The Royal Sussex is run by University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust and Dr Findlay took over as chief executive in June 2022.
The council’s Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee is due to meet at Hove Town Hall at 4pm next Wednesday (10 April). The meeting is scheduled to be webcast on the council’s website.
I would encourage the ICB to commission more community-based services, so patients don’t have to attend A&E in the first place. Expanded Urgent Treatment at Home and Expanded Pharmacy First services would be my first port of call.
Then by diversifying GP surgeries with more paramedic practitioners to more comprehensively treat and manage patients to support GP waiting times, further reducing the need for A&E.
It needs to be work on as well
Yeah, absolutely. I find with most things NHS, there is usually more than one aspect within the chain that needs to be improved, upgraded or innovated. Got to be a multiphasic plan!
Leave the German royal family and Nigel Faraj (Arabic surname Faraj made anglicised) alone!
Good! Finally a couple councillors with half of a brain on them. Hallelujah!
I’m pleased someone is going to get to grips with this badly managed A&E department. My concern is the management will simply bullshit their way through it with weasel words, excuses, and cover up. From personal experience this hospital is a very dangerous place.
Sort the GP’S out so people can get an appointment in less then 5 weeks and people wouldn’t need to go A & E.
Sorting the NHS is above local councillors pay grade Mark boy. Don’t you know?
I know. It baffles me tbh. We’ve all these Drs, nurses and rocket scientists arriving daily but somehow the services can’t keep up with demand. I’d have thought we’d have GPs and urgent care units on the moon by now.
Guess it’s just one of those mysteries of the world that can’t be explained
Well, you’d do well to read the study on staff shortages produced by TheKingsFund; explains the answer to your question very comprehensively! https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/insight-and-analysis/data-and-charts/staff-shortages
Diversifying what clinicians people see is a good first step, you don’t always need to see a doctor. There’s also an aspect of learning about self-care, there’s loads that can be done at a Pharmacy for example, and with the Pharmacy First model being added, there’s a lot more they can do. People phone ambulances for really inappropriate reasons as well, so it is further important to educate people.
That’s something that can be done today.
My wife had to go into A&E a couple of months ago. All the nurses and most of the doctors were excellent. I noticed that most of them spent a lot of time staring at computer screens and waiting for test results to come through, while patients lay on beds and trollies waiting for the same. No actual treatment going on most of time.
Testing and scanning are a huge aspect of understanding injury and disease. Can’t effectively treat people blindly.
I’d love to be a vet.
Abuse and misuse of ACCIDENT & EMERGENCY by the public, in part driven by lack of avialbaility of GP appointments and in part by selfishness, is the single greatest bigest factor compromising the service. People are very ready to criticise the service delivery, but fail to mention the unecessary demand placed on it.
Worst AE I have even been to I would never go there again they tell you 6 to 8 hrs waiting time I left in lot of pain could not bare to wait 71 years old where do we turn to .Rest of the his hospital like 4 star Hotel Shame on you Start knocking down AE it like a old work house
The formula for soving this crisis is simple.
Create more usable medical facilities instead of none productive areas such as enormous glass fronted coffee lounges. Bring in more front line medical staff, doctors, nurses, radiographers, technicians, medical equipment as necessary. We need more cleaners and porters and stop wasting money on admin and managers who quite frankly contribute sod all.. In fact get rid of half of them now to save money tto help pay for some of the above. How about that for starters.
Brute forcing the situation with “more frontline medical staff” has not worked. It has not worked for the last 13 years. If we’re talking about people, it a much more logical argument to consider what is available and being more innovate with their usage. Pharmacists are a massively underutilised profession, for example.
If you have a cardiac event we’ll get you a pharmacist…..a couple of paracetamol should do it
Oh Jim, initial cardiac bundle is clearly morphine, aspirin and GTN, with some debate ongoing about the latter’s usage in inferior STEMIs.
You joke, but you could certainly add some IVP in there if you really wanted to.
Pharmacists not able to prescribe your cardiac bundle so paracetamol it is…….keep out of Brighton A&E it’s not good for your health.
You don’t need to prescribe in that situation, HMR specifically enables this action, with the exception of morphine. Although, as a thought, the barrier to pharmacists is perhaps more likely a legislative one, rather than capacity. Hmm…
Helipad that’s of no use. What a wast of money that was. Just an example of money that could have been spent on frontline staff.
Smacks of the level of incompetence of the i360.
This is a result of mangers who haven’t got a clue .
The helipad’s not done yet, Roger.
It should have been completed a long time ago but has been delayed by a series of serious issues that should have been foresen.
This has sent it way over time and budget.
It’s not usable, not safe, not fit for purpose as it stands. As I say incompetence.
How many people attend A&E in desperation because their GP cannot offer them an appointment for weeks
Last month I had to go to A &E could not get to see my GP at all …all she did was to prescribe gabapentin for my nerve pain In my arm which was coming from my neck..ended up 36 hours in a chair with horrendous pain waiting for a mri scan as there was only one working In the new building..There was 2 x young girls which over dosed and had cuts on there arms they were treated on the floor beside me..Another man collapsed on the floor where the medicine he was given lowered his B/P to quickly..this was happening all around me ..I shouted loud for help then the Dr’s and staff came running to treat him otherwise I don’t know how long he would have been out of it..eventually I had my mri scan which caused me so much pain and ended up having 3 x discs in my neck popped out causing numbness in my arm..I have had no one to follow up my treatment they said the nureosurgeon will ring you tomorrow he never did..