Waiting times for Brighton and Hove’s accident and emergency (A&E) patients are much better and will improve further, according to hospital bosses.
A report by Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust spells out changes that have been made to tackle problems in A&E at the Royal Sussex County Hospital.
The trust’s chief executive Matthew Kershaw is expected to present the report to councillors at Hove Town Hall next Tuesday (10 September).
Mr Kershaw has been invited to discuss progress at the Brighton and Hove City Council Health and Wellbeing Overview and Scrutiny Committee.
The trust’s report says: “Overall we have seen a sustained improvement in waiting times in the Emergency Department (ED) since April and zero breaches of the 12-hour standard (no patient to wait more than 12 hours from decision to admit to admission).
“Performance against the four-hour standard was achieved in May, June and July but has been more difficult to maintain in August and overall performance was at 93.3 per cent for the month.
“Our focus is now to address this in September and onwards for the coming winter.
“A large part of our programme of work was around changing doctors’ rotas and referral practices and this required new consultant appointments and new ways of working.
“While these appointments have now been made we will not see the full benefit until October this year.
“We have also identified that we have more to do in surgery and around the time of day and number of discharges particularly at the weekends.
“(The Royal Sussex) remains with consistently high ED attendances and a significant daily variation in the number of patients passing through the Emergency Department.
“Within this there is a significant daily variation in ambulance conveyances (from 69 to 128 each day in July and August) and the associated admissions.
“This is important because between 40 and 45 per cent of the patients who come to us by ambulance will need admission to hospital.
“The more we can understand this variation the better we can influence it through the work that the (Brighton and Hove Clinical Commissioning Group) CCG and partners are doing so admission to hospital becomes the exception.
“We also remain with a significant number of patients who make their own way to the ED who do not need to be seen in hospital.”
The report says that the key changes have included the introduction of a Patient Assessment Team in A&E to ensure
