Stafford hospital crisis: Long waits spark fresh A&E calls ahead of Jeremy Hunt visit
One in three emergency patients are waiting more than four hours to be dealt with at Royal Stoke University Hospital, while six people spent half a day on a trolley, new figures have revealed.
It has led to fresh calls to see A&E at County Hospital in Stafford fully reopen 24 hours-a-day – a pre-election pledge made by Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt, who is set to visit Royal Stoke to see its problems first hand.
Just 66 per cent of patients attending the emergency department in September – excluding walk-in centres – were seen, treated, admitted or discharged within four hours. The national target is 95 per cent.
Six people waited 12 hours or more to be admitted to the hospital from A&E – 43 in total for the year – when the target is for that to never happen.
County Hospital, which along with Royal Stoke is run by the University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust, is faring better with a 91 per cent performance against the four-hour standard and no 12-hour trolley waits.
Julian Porter from the Support Stafford Hospital group said: "The answer is simple. There needs to be a fully functional and 24-hour A&E at Stafford to relieve the pressure on Stoke.
"The building is there, the capacity is there. People are waiting in corridors as long as sports halls at Stoke. It can't cope.
"It hasn't got any more physical space."
Mr Hunt visited Stafford in April 2015 declaring that 24-hour emergency care would return to County providing it was 'clinically safe'.
It has now been operating for 14 hours only for several years.
Mr Hunt confirmed his intention to visit Royal Stoke during a House of Commons debate this week saying he was 'concerned' about the hospital admitting it had been under pressure in the wake of the Mid-Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust scandal.
Mr Porter said: "How can he not make it clinically safe? They can't say they haven't got enough staff. If they have enough for Stoke they have enough for Stafford."
Mr Robert Courteney-Harris, the trust's medical director, said: "The Accident & Emergency Department at Royal Stoke University Hospital remains extremely busy and we regularly update our board, local members of Parliament and other stakeholders on the situation.
"Like many other trusts in the country we are experiencing increasing levels of attendances and admissions.
"However, in North Staffordshire we have particularly high numbers of patients who no longer need to be treated by us but cannot be discharged in a timely way due to a lack of suitable alternative care within the community or at home.
"This is something that all local health and care organisations are seeking to address. Extending the opening hours at the A&E department at County Hospital would not solve this problem."
A Department of Health spokesman said Mr Hunt's visit would probably take place early next year.
