Bed cuts - Pennine Trust say improvement in services

Date article online: 23/03/2007

Following the revelation on Rochdale Online on Thursday 22 March of beds to be cut at Rochdale Infirmary, Pennine Acute Trust has released the 'official' line, that as expected, presents the bed cuts as an "improvement in services" rather than a financial measure that will affect patient care.

The media release:

Proposed improvements in services for patients using four Greater Manchester district general hospitals will see a drop in bed numbers of around 10 per cent, it was announced today.

The work has been done by a group of clinicians and managers at Pennine Acute Trust, which runs Bury’s Fairfield General Hospital, North Manchester General Hospital, The Royal Oldham Hospital and Rochdale Infirmary. It is based on analysis comparing the average 05/06 length of stay for patients by specialty, admission method and sites against both local and national averages.

Karen James, executive director of operations for the Trust, said: "This work will help reduce unnecessary delays and both improve and shorten the patient’s "journey" in the hospital. It builds on work already underway in wards and departments across the Trust. 

"Length of stay has been dropping steadily through recent years, and we have already been doing much work to improve admissions and avoid delayed discharges of patients, including a discharge date indicator system cited by the Department of Health as good practice.

"But still, it’s quite clear that we need to be doing more to get patients the treatment they need, when they need it, with out delays. We’ll be looking at the admissions process, the length of stay management, and the discharge process to develop schemes which help patients avoid bottlenecks."

Among projects to support the work are:

An increase in day case surgery which is now in line with national levels of 75% of all activity – with plans to further increase the figure.

Expansion of use of admission lounges which allows the consultant to see all patients in one designated area rather than traveling from ward to ward. 

A computerised system will ensure that patients awaiting diagnostic tests are not using beds unnecessarily. 

Medical Assessment Clinics to avoiding unnecessary admissions, allowing patients rapid access to assessments and follow up appointments without requiring a hospital bed. 

A Hospital at Home project is being developed which will allow acute medical professionals to treat patients at home. 

Work with GPs in A&Es and medical admissions units, to ensure that patients are making the most of the full range of NHS services available, and helping them through the system.

Karen added: "Naturally, we need enabling schemes to be in place and working before we reduce bed numbers – otherwise we would simply have to re-open the beds. There’s a lot of work to be done on the next stage, because we want the staff at each of the hospitals to be developing their own proposals. And it’s not just about hospital staff or systems. We need to make sure we are working with other parts of the NHS and social services to make sure that patients are not having treatment or discharge delays."

An estimated Trust-wide figure of 250 was first announced last year, but today’s announcement breaks that down to individual hospitals. It also takes account of the impact of additional work needed to meet the 18 week target, meaning that the prediction of the overall number of beds due to be affected has been reduced to 221.

Karen added: "From a starting point of 2,279 beds across the Trust, we felt that we could reduce that figure by 250. However, to ensure provision of the additional capacity required to meet the 18 week target we have now reduced that number to 221. Included in this figure is the 28 beds reduced at Fairfield through closing Ward 30 and re-opening Ward 29.

"This work will benefit patients, but it is also key to our financial recovery programme, giving us the solid financial framework on which we will build the future development of services."