Nhs trust 'third best in country' for key waiting times

NHS trust bosses have told how they are third best in the country for a key A&E target, but staff were facing worse abuse and violence. Directors at the North Tees and Hartlepool NHS

Foundation Trust told of A&E performance, new developments and improvements including in maternity services over the past year. They said almost 20,000 hours of nursing staff's time

had been saved through digital records. Medical director Deepak Dwarakanath said told a meeting of Stockton Council's adult social care and health select committee on Tuesday (May 20)

that urgent and emergency care was the third best in the country for the A&E target for admitting, transferring or discharging patients within four hours of arrival. He spoke of shorter

handover times of just over 15 minutes, lower waiting times and lower mortality rates compared to other trusts. He said: "Compared to other trusts for our performance, it's way

ahead of anywhere within the region and nationally. For A&E to function well, to take patients from ambulances or walk-ins, look after them, care for them and admit those that need to be

admitted, the whole process through to the back of house and discharge needs to work efficiently. "So everyone in the trust, all 5,500 employees, has some responsibility in some way

for that target. We're very proud to say that 85.6% puts us as third best within the UK. "By and large, waiting times to be admitted are far less than regional and national

comparators, the number of patients that wait more than 12 hours. The fewer patients we have in that 12-hour window, the better - 0.5% of all our admissions that come through is

significantly better than regional and national colleagues. "Going back to April 2023, you can see that the trust or A&E four-hour standard isn't a flash in the pan. It's

been a steady performance all the way through. "We would like to get it back to the heyday levels of 95% some five to 10 years ago, but that's something we're aspiring to. We

constantly want to improve and we've appointed several GP registrars to give us more urgent care slots." But the news was not all good: "One of the sad things we've seen

which has probably got worse in my view since Covid is the amount of abuse, violence etc that our staff see in A&E, EAU [emergency assessment unit] and other parts of the hospital. The

nature of these incidents has become much more unpleasant. "We have zero tolerance, we have security placed very close to the A&E department and we have a good relationship with

police." He added there had been improvements including handling complaints, even if the feedback was painful. He said: "We have a responsibility to look at their complaints,

answer them fairly and learn where we need to learn, and I think we are ever improving on that." BIGGEST CHALLENGE IS OLD BUILDINGS He said they wanted to focus on infection prevention

and control because of concerns across the country about increased healthcare-associated infections, with four bugs highlighted including MRSA. Director of nursing Beth Swanson said they

were doing well for recruitment and were working to keep staff and give them more skills, collaborating with Teesside and Sunderland universities. She said: "Our turnover of nursing

staff is 6%, nationally it's 10%, we have that local workforce who are really loyal and don't tend to move. "We're really a leader with regard to the way we manage

patients. Our clinicians have access to the state-of-the-art equipment and that's what we aim to do. I think probably our biggest challenge is our building, obviously North Tees is an

old estate." She spoke of new developments including a new operating theatre block, with a robotic theatre and a maternity theatre, built using money gained from the trust's high

performance, as well as an emergency department control room, community teams in Billingham, a surgical hub in Hartlepool, new ultrasound equipment, delivery room improvements and pioneering

scans to detect cancer earlier. 'IT HAS TAKEN US TO ANOTHER LEVEL' Mr Dwarakanath spoke of one octogenarian patient who was "happy as Larry" after quick detection and

treatment with the new kit: "This equipment has really taken us to another level in the last year or two with regard to early cancer diagnosis. It allows patients to have scans,

biopsies and earlier diagnoses rather than trekking up to Newcastle." Referring to award-winning work in moving to digital healthcare records, he added: "We've saved something

like 19,000 hours of nursing time. That's hours that can now be used to give direct patient care." Ms Swanson said they were awaiting confirmation for maternity services, rated

"requires improvement" by the Care Quality Commission in 2022, to move off safety support: "We're in a position to move off the maternity safety improvement plan. All the

actions that were set for us, we have now completed. "I think there's been a real shift in culture in our maternity services in North Tees and Hartlepool. Lots and lots of hard

work. 'THERE IS MORE TO DO' "They've done some amazing work to support staff. That doesn't mean we're getting it right every time. We absolutely have to learn

from people's experiences." She said in a national survey of patients, they scored nine for patients being treated with kindness and compassion: "There's a number of

areas we know we need to strengthen, but there's equally some areas we performed well above the national average. We've got to be cognisant that there is more to do." She

added they were able to act quickly on an in-house survey: "The vast majority of our patients are identifying that care was very good or good. A small proportion have reported it as

very poor or poor." Councillor Lynn Hall said: "It's interesting that your four-hour wait target has dipped very slightly because that is the perception, I feel, of the

residents out there. They have noticed a slight difference, and I welcome your efforts to bring it back up. "Stockton and North Tees in particular was one of the leaders in the region

for this. We were proud of that and we want to maintain it. It seems to be gradually on the way up. "The perception clearly was that there were extra problems at North Tees. It's

that four-hour wait that people found particularly difficult over the winter months." Mr Dwarakanath said: "The graph does show that. We're a net importer of patients.

We've seen more patients come to our urgent care and A&E, I think around 9%. "That has added to the pressure, those are part of the reason why you did see a slight dip during

winter. We're developing and improving our emergency assessment location in the centre of the hospital, to do that we've had to close eight beds. "We'll have a much

better medical assessment area probably around July or August. That'll really ramp up that side of things." JOIN TEESSIDE LIVE'S WHATSAPP COMMUNITY FOR TOP STORIES AND

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