Waiting times still 'longer than acceptable' at Shrewsbury and Telford A&Es despite progress made

An action plan was drawn up by Shrewsbury and Telford NHS Trust earlier this year to address shortcomings exposed by the Channel 4 documentary Dispatches, which showed undercover footage of patients enduring long waits and being left in corridors in the Accident and Emergency department at Royal Shrewsbury Hospital.

A report presented to Shropshire Telford & Wrekin’s Integrated Care Board said unconventional care areas such as corridors had been “actively closed” and used less often, but added that the number of patients who remain in A&E longer than 12 hours must reduce from its current level of 18 per cent.

A meeting of the board held in Wellington on Wednesday was told that a drop in demand over the summer had given hospitals time to make improvements, but health bosses added that staff remained “sad and broken” over the findings.

“Since the Dispatches programme there has been some improvement in Emergency Department performance metrics including improvement in ambulance offload delays and less use of corridor care. However there remains longer than acceptable waits in the department and waits to be seen which is the focus of ongoing workstreams,” the report said.

“The opening of two Frailty Assessment Units, one on each hospital site and each with four chairs and four beds [is] reducing the length of time frail elderly people are in the Emergency Department and promoting earlier discharge and there is work in progress to scale the number of patients who can access these units. ”

Chief Nursing Officer Vanessa Whatley told the meeting improvements had been made during a lull in the number of people using the department over the summer, adding that the broadcasting of the documentary had a “considerable impact” on staff.

“Demand is something that is very responsive…and in August we saw quite a bit of improvement linked with some of the reduction in demand, but it gave staff within the departments time to implement a lot of the actions,” she said.

“We saw the best improvement then and it’s about how we sustain that going forward and continue to deliver the emergency care action plan.

“We continue to work on the action plan and embedding those actions.”

Interim Chief Executive at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust Jo Williams, who begun her role last week following the departure of Louise Barnett, added that staff at the county’s hospitals were working hard to improve services while working under “extreme pressure”.

“Since arriving last week and walking in the hospital the first thing you think of is ‘would I have care in this hospital?’ and I think there’s an element of ‘yes I would’ and I think there’s things that could be a lot better,” she said.

“Every single member of the department, while smiling and delivering compassionate care, is pretty sad and broken about seeing themselves on the TV and I can’t underestimate the impact of that.

“They are embarrassed about that care so whilst apologising we also need to let them know that they are doing their best under extreme circumstances.”