East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust under increasing pressure

The NHS in England is under increasing pressure with record waiting lists, extended ambulance delays and sky-high flu patient numbers just some of the challenges facing the service.

Here is the current situation at East Lancashire Hospitals Trust:

Flu patients

The latest NHS figures show there were 96 flu patients being treated by East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust as of January 1 – up from 69 the week before.

Of them, 89 were in general and acute wards, while a further seven were patients in critical care.

This is an increase from the start of winter when 11 flu patients were being cared for at the Trust on November 14, the earliest figures available.

Flue cases have risen considerably across England this winter, with an average of 5,105 being in general hospital beds in the week up to January 1 – this is up 47 per cent from the previous week and almost 15 times the number seen between November 14 and 20.

Health research centre the King’s Fund said: “The NHS was struggling before the rise in flu cases, so there is a lot more needed in resources, funding and investment so that services can deal with the same problems should they arise in the future.”

Ambulance delays

At East Lancashire Hospitals Trust, five per cent of the 791 ambulance arrivals took more than an hour, while 32 per cent waited 30 minutes or more.

NHS targets state trusts should complete 95 per cent of all ambulance handovers in 30 minutes, with all conducted in less than one hour.

More than a quarter of patients across the country waited over an hour to be transferred, while 44 per cent of handovers took longer than 30 minutes.

A handover delay does not always mean a patient has waited in the ambulance as they could have been moved into an A&E department but the handover was not completed.

Bed occupancy

As of January 1, 94 per cent of the 731 beds across adult and paediatric general and acute wards at East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust were occupied.

Of those, 653 were for adult beds and 33 were for children, while all 28 critical care beds were occupied.

Tony McDonald, executive director of integrated care, partnerships, and resilience, at East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust, said: “The trust has seen an unprecedented number of people coming into our urgent care centres and A&E over recent weeks.

“The challenges we have faced have been exacerbated by a high number of people with infectious winter illnesses, such as flu and other respiratory conditions.

“I want to say a huge thank you to the urgent and emergency care team – as well as colleagues across the Trust who have worked tirelessly to provide safe, personal and effective care.

“Patients are treated as quickly as possible and, as you would expect, treated based on clinical surgery.

“The support of local people is really appreciated and we would ask everyone to help us prevent the spread of infection by wearing a mask when they are on any of our hospital sites and to think about the most appropriate service for their need, including pharmacies and GP surgeries.”

NHS national medical director for England Professor Sir Stephen Powis added: “We knew this winter would be one of the most difficult in the history of the NHS and I want to thank staff for all their hard work in caring for and treating so many patients while dealing with record demand on services, including the enormous pressure from flu and Covid.

“The plans we announced last autumn will help ensure we are in the best place possible to provide care for patients at this incredibly challenging time.”