Extra Blackburn hospital beds in bid to avert winter crisis (From Blackburn Citizen)

Extra Blackburn hospital beds in bid to avert winter crisis

9:10pm Wednesday 1st October 2008

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EXTRA hospital beds are set to be opened in a bid to avoid a repeat of last year’s winter chaos.

An additional 29 beds at the Royal Blackburn Hospital will be staffed permanently throughout the coming winter.

Extra nurses will also be employed on short-term contracts to care for the patients.

The move came after health bosses admitted that last year’s contingency procedures had not been up to scratch.

The hospital was hit hard by the severe outbreak of the norovirus winter vomiting bug last year.

Although bosses were not forced to close wards, dozens of operations were cancelled and patients complained of poor care from overworked staff.

And this year East Lancashire hospitals are already dealing with an unprecedented number of admissions, with 1,500 more patients per month than seen previously. An investigation is being carried out into what has caused this surge in demand.

Chief Executive Marie Burnham said the trust had already done exceptionally well to stay within the government’s target of 98 per cent of people waiting no longer than 18 weeks for treatment, despite the extra patient numbers.

She said the extra beds, along with additional ambulance cover, would mean that performance could be maintained with even more extra patients over the winter.

Last year, the trust had used staff on standby to come in and cover wards as pressure points. But this time, the beds will be open permanently, ready to take the pressure off any part of the hospital.

Miss Burnham said this, along with the new surgical triage unit set to open at Blackburn’s emergency department in December, would make a big difference.

Director of operations Val Bertenshaw said: “We have got to be able to respond quickly. We learned last winter that although we had escalation plans, it took longer to get people in place than we had anticipated, and we need to be able to do it instantly.

“If we don’t need the extra staff for emergency provision, they can be used to improve patient flow in planned care, which will ease any extra pressures throughout the hospital.”

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