In the past 18 months the NHS has faced its toughest challenge to date and this has undoubtedly had an impact on our services, our workforce and our communities. Now we are into the winter months, we know that the pressure will not ease across health and social care. As well as managing the increased demand that winter always brings we continue to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic and reducing our elective care waiting lists.
The pandemic has taught us all a lot, and thanks to the continued amazing efforts of our staff our focus will continue to be delivering safe, high quality care to our patients.
To do that, we have a strong plan in place alongside colleagues in health and social care.
One of our main priorities this winter is working with our partners to ensure our patients are in the right place at the right time. We have high numbers of patients who no longer need hospital care, but they are unable to be discharged due to shortages of appropriate placements and care packages in the community. We know that being in hospital longer than necessary is not good for patients and that people recover quicker at home if they have the right support in place. To help this we are looking at different support that can be given and have started a recruitment programme for additional homecare practitioners to provide short term care in patient’s homes.
Helping people who no longer need hospital care to go home is also important because we have to keep beds available for patients coming in for a planned operation or procedure. Our priority is to reduce for the number of patients waiting for a planned (elective) procedure. Our waiting lists have grown as a result of Covid and many patients are waiting much longer than we would like.
We are developing ways to ensure that only appropriate cases come to A&E and that the most serious are prioritised and treated quickly. This includes working with North West Ambulance Service to make sure only those who require urgent and life threatening care come to A&E and those with symptoms such as abdominal pain and shortness of breath are seen by our same day emergency care unit.
We are also asking our communities to ‘do your bit’ to help us this winter:
- Think pharmacy, GP and NHS 111 online first. Please only attend A&E or call 999 if you have a serious or life-threatening emergency
- Get your flu and Covid-19 vaccinations
- If you suspect you have Covid-19 stay at home and arrange a test
- If you are visiting any of our healthcare settings, please remember to wear a face covering and use our handwashing and alcohol gel facilities
- Please keep your hospital, clinic or GP appointment. If you can’t make it, do let us know so we can offer that appointment to others
