Lack of access to community health services and teething problems with the 111 telephone service may be contributing to Northampton General Hospital’s A&E overload, a senior doctor has said.
Latest board papers reveal only 87.9 per cent of NGH’s emergency patients were dealt with within four hours in April, against a target of 95 per cent.
Although unreleased figures show the emergency department improved last month and dealt with more than 96 per cent of patients within four hours, bosses are still trying to find out the root of high volumes, which are being blamed for delays.
An NGH report has speculated the underlying reasons may include teething problems with the new national ‘minor emergencies’ telephone number.
Dr Sonia Swart, the medical director, said: “Number of attendances in A&E for April have been high and the influx of greater numbers of A&E attenders might be due to the introduction of the new 111 service.”
Meanwhile, NGH’s emergency department also continued to struggle with its target of minimising unplanned re-attendances with the same condition, which rose to more than six per cent during April. Dr Swart’s report said patients may be resorting to A&E because they cannot be seen by health services in the community.
She said there is “a genuine concern related to patients re-attending when they have been unable to access aftercare in primary care.”
NGH’s figures come as national statistics are released today showing A&E waiting times are at a nine-year high in England as a whole.
The monitoring report from The King’s Fund showed that in the final quarter of 2012/13, 5.9 per cent of patients, or 313,000 people, waited for four hours or longer in A&E.
John Appleby, chief economist at The King’s Fund, said: “Emergency care acts as a barometer for the NHS. The worryingly high number of patients waiting longer than four hours in the last quarter of 2012/13 is a clear warning sign that the health system is under severe strain.
“The pressures in emergency care will not be relieved by focusing on a single aspect of the problem in isolation - it requires a co-ordinated response across the whole health system.”
April’s poor A&E performance at NGH was against a background of 8,742 patients through its doors, meaning 1,057 were not seen within four hours.
But in May, there were slightly more patients, a total of 8,790, and only 334 of them breached the target.
NGH said it was hopeful this is a sign concerted NHS efforts to take the pressure off Northamptonshire A&Es, begun in 2011, are working, which is supported by the fact May saw the second consecutive month of improved waiting times.
Aside from raising awareness of other services such as NHS Direct and pharmacies, bosses have also redesigned NGH’s A&E department and employed more emergency staff there.
The Department of Health today promised more funding was on the way to assist the efforts of A&Es nationally.
A spokesman said: “Clearly the NHS had a difficult winter and A&E departments were under pressure. This is partly due to the fact that there are over one million more people visiting A&E compared to three years ago.
“We’ve been absolutely clear that the NHS needs to transform the way health services are delivered to meet the needs of an ageing population focusing more on joined up services and prevention.
“We are working with the NHS to address the long-term problems facing A&E.
“Sir Bruce Keogh’s urgent care review is looking at the range of pressures on emergency services. In addition NHS England is ensuring that money is freed up and available to improve A&E services so that they are better able to cope next winter.”