Record number of people treated at Walsall Manor A&E in one day

A report to the Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust’s monthly board meeting revealed that there has been a surge in patients using the emergency department during the past few months.

This culminated in 311 people coming through the A&E doors on June 24 – which was 18 more than the hospital’s previous highest total for a 24-hour period.

This followed a trend which saw year-on-year increases in the months of April and May.

Need for beds

In his report, chief executive Richard Beeken said if the increase in demand continues it could impact on the quality of the service for patients.

He added it has resulted in the need to use emergency beds to cope with referrals while they were currently assessing the impact on the trust’s financial resources.

Possible explanations for the increase have been changes to the NHS Walk in Centre, which saw services moved to the Manor Hospital earlier to this year.

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Mr Beeken said: “During April, May and June we have seen huge strain placed upon our urgent care services.

“Initial ED activity reports comparing April 2019 with April 2018, showed an increase in attendances of 14 per cent. In May, that year on year increase was more than six per cent.

“On 24th June, we treated a record number of ED attendances (311 in a 24 hour period, some 18 higher than our previous record).

“I signalled last month that if this was sustained, this would be an unprecedented shift and will have consequent effects on our ability to provide a good experience for patients, our ability to deliver improved ED four-hour target performance.

“It has also led to a greater number of referrals for admission than we have been able to cope with within our core bed base and therefore, during the last few days, our staffing resilience (AEC, acute medicine cover and contingency beds last opened in winter) has had to increase.”