Local MPs thank NUH staff for challenging but better winter | Latest news

Local MPs thank NUH staff for challenging but better winter

Local MPs have visited Nottingham hospitals to personally thank staff for their hard work and effort through a challenging winter.

MPs Nadia Whittome, Michael Payne, Lilian Greenwood, James Naish and Amanda Hack visited City Hospital and Queen’s Medical Centre (QMC) to congratulate staff on the positive impact they had on planned and emergency care through winter.

Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust (NUH) successfully maintained it’s planned care this winter, following a commitment to prevent pressures from seasonal illnesses like flu from having an impact on wait times. In addition, through various initiatives and new approaches, the Trust has reduced emergency care wait times and improved patient discharge.

Lilian Greenwood, MP for Nottingham South, said: “We’ve heard about the incredible work done by NUH staff across every single discipline to make sure that the healthcare services our hospitals deliver is what we all expect and rely on. 

“I want to say a huge thank you to those staff, who we know are giving their best every day to care for our constituents.”

Further details of improvements across Nottingham hospitals this winter, include:

• Ambulance handover times – reduced handover times thanks to a new trial in partnership with East Midlands Ambulance Service. Category 2 response times (stroke, heart attacks and major burns, for example) have reduced by 20 minutes in Nottinghamshire. This means that ambulances are getting out to emergency situations quicker.

• Reduced waits in the Emergency Department (ED) - the average length of stay has reduced by 40 minutes. Time spent waiting for a bed to become available has also reduced by two hours, ensuring patients are admitted to wards quicker.
  
  
• New wards - opened two winter wards, providing 48 additional beds throughout winter, including 24 beds at QMC – the first time a winter ward has opened at QMC.

• Improved discharges - gained the equivalent of two full wards' worth of space by speeding up patient discharges. The average number of medically safe patients has reduced by around from around 200 to 150 compared to last year.

• Expanded admission areas – created more space in our medical Same Day Emergency Care and Urgent Treatment Centre, allowing us to provide non-emergency patients with care quicker. 

• Maximising theatre and planned care space – from dual-operating theatres to high-intensity theatre lists and 24-hour surgery, our teams are delivering more procedures and reducing waiting times using innovative practices.

Dr Mark Simmonds, Deputy Medical Director at NUH said: “Our plan for this winter was to maintain planned care and manage wait times across our services, providing the best patient care possible for those visiting our hospitals. Through early planning and hard work, we have managed tomaintain our elective activity for the second year running with no elective procedures cancelled due to winter pressures.  

“Not only that, but we have successfully improved discharge figures and wait times in our emergency department.

“Along with caring for the thousands of patients who came through our doors this winter, our teams set up and introduced new wards, extended current wards, created additional surgery opportunities, improved patient pathways and collaborated with system partners to ensure swift and safe patient discharge.

“There is no doubt that this winter was a challenge, and we know there is still much more to do, to improve waiting lists further and to manage the pressures in our emergency department, but I can certainly see that things have improved. Despite these difficult circumstances, I never cease to be amazed by the hard work and dedication of the staff at NUH in providing excellent patient care this winter."