Extra beds and £6.2m to ease winter pressures in NHS ‘resilience’ plan
Ambulances queueing outside the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Picture: Chris Bishop - Credit: Archant
Norfolk health bosses have unveiled their plans to cope with winter pressures, with extra beds and more than £6m of funding in readiness for seasonal demand.
A winter fund of £2m has been allocated from local health budgets to help the NHS cope with increased capacity, while adult social services has received a £4.1m winter pressures grant.
And extra beds and staff have been made available across the region's mental health trust, to "mitigate the impact and to reduce the time patients spend in emergency departments".
But resilience planning has shifted to a year round approach, with pressures increasing at other times of the year, despite the demand on the health services exacerbated in the winter.
READ MORE: Norfolk's NHS reveals plan to avoid winter crisis of last year
At a meeting of Norfolk County Council's health and wellbeing board on Wednesday, October 30, James Bullion, executive director of adult social care, told board members the health service's approach would focus on keeping and supporting people at home, preventative health care in the community and hitting two-hour crisis response targets.
Most Read
- 1 Roadworks to be aware of in Norfolk this week
- 2 Historic US airfield museum volunteers awarded highest Queen’s honour
- 3 Overturned lorry causes heavy traffic on A140
- 4 Heatwave to return this week - but how hot is Norfolk going to be?
- 5 See inside £1.5m north Suffolk farmhouse surrounded by a moat
- 6 Health warning issued as temperatures to hit 34C in Norfolk this week
- 7 'Risk of injury' - Aldi recalls product due to safety fears
- 8 Four-day extreme heat weather warning for Norfolk issued by Met Office
- 9 'Absolute rubbish' - Summit discusses controversial waste plant
- 10 Biggest 'shooting star' meteor shower to peak this week
Over the past two financial years, demand on the health service rose in areas including a 10.4pc rise in January ambulance call outs and a 4.7pc increase in emergency hospital admissions in Norfolk and Waveney.
But walk-in centre attendance dropped by almost 10pc over the same period.
All of Norfolk's acute hospitals failed to meet the four hour A&E waiting time target, and care homes, home care providers and mental health capacity struggled to cope with the winter demands.
And measures to boost the health service's capacity this winter will include:
- 16 extra acute adult beds in Hellesdon Hospital's Yare Ward
- Improving admission avoidance and faster discharges
- And social services funding for additional care packages, extra staff and mental health capacity
And speaking after the meeting, board chairman Bill Borrett said: "The Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital (NNUH) was full all throughout August.
"It's more about resilience than it is just about winter. Winter is highlighting it."
He added: "I'm very glad that for pretty much the first time the whole system has one plan. We're now working together so much better - that shows we've made an improvement since last year."
READ MORE: Norfolk to get £4.2m to ease the pressure on hospitals this winter
