IN-DEPTH: WINTER PLANNING


GET WINTER READY I


nside the world of the NHS, winter tends not to conjure up images of cosy evenings by the fire and festive celebrations. Instead our focus is on preparing for heightened demand across our patient pathways, from our emergency departments to our inpatient wards.


With hospital admissions set to rise during the next four months or so, and a heavy flu season anticipated, how can we make sure we continue to provide high quality care?


NEW WAYS OF WORKING Our rigorous preparation and planning started with building on our existing improvement programmes. A good example is ambulatory emergency care (AEC) at both St Mary’s and Charing Cross hospitals. This is provided in dedicated units where patients can be seen by a specialist, have tests and receive treatment without going through A&E or being admitted to hospital. In time for winter, we’ve extended the opening hours to include evenings and weekends. Patients requiring treatment available at the AEC can now be referred seven days a week by their GP or our own clinicians. We’ve also expanded and refurbished our A&E at St Mary’s with £3.2m – made possible by funding from Imperial Health Charity. This has increased our


at times of highest demand. We’re also expanding our frailty teams and weekend ‘acute take’ teams, with additional pharmacy, occupational therapy, registrar and senior nursing support. And there will more transport and porter resource.


capacity from four resuscitation beds to six, and allowed us to create four new assessment beds in the children’s emergency department. At Charing Cross, we’ve co-located and expanded our acute medicine beds on the ground floor, near to the emergency department and closer to imaging to speed up admissions. We’ve also recruited additional A&E staff, including eight consultants and specialist mental health nurses since 2015.


EXTRA CAPACITY


We’re investing £1m in boosting capacity further during the winter months. This includes bringing into use up to 42 additional ‘winter’ beds and ensuring our 20 ‘flex’ beds can be opened quickly


COMMUNITY-BASED CARE Over winter we see more patients who, once treated, need extra support to be put in place before they can be discharged. To enable people to return home or to community-based care as soon as they are able, we are working closely with a range of partners. There are community-based health teams in place that enable medically fit patients to be discharged and assessed at home the same day – rather than waiting to be assessed in hospital. We’ve also secured interim beds in local care homes and nursing homes so older people who need ongoing rehabilitation, but don’t need to be in hospital, can be discharged to ‘step-down’ care.


TICKING ALL THE BOXES Everyone has their part to play in preparing for the NHS winter. We’ve launched a campaign to ‘Get Winter Ready’ including a set of checklists and factsheets tailored to staff, local GPs and the public to highlight the most important actions you can take and to pull together details of the key support available.


Have you ticked your checklist? FIGHTING FLU!


Making sure you’ve had your flu vaccination is one of the most important items on our Get Winter Ready checklists. It prevents the spread of flu to vulnerable patients and helps our whole workforce to stay healthy. We’re encouraging all our staff to become #flufighters! Find out more on page 3.


FOR MORE INFORMATION


To download any of our Get Winter Ready checklists or factsheets, or to find out more about the measures we’re putting in place to manage capacity this winter go to: imperial.nhs.uk/get-winter-ready


4 /Pulse www.imperial.nhs.uk


Get winter ready Staff checklist for winter 2017/18


Working together to ensure patients get great care throughout the winter


1. I know the alternatives to A&E and hospital admission, like ambulatory emergency care (AEC) and urgent specialist referral.


Find out more in our A&E and hospital admission alternatives factsheet.


2. I know and follow national best practice for ensuring good fl ow throughout our patient pathways.


Find out more about best practice board rounds and patient and family communications in our SAFER patient fl ow factsheet.


3. I know what support is available to enable medically fi t patients to be discharged and assessed at home.


Find out more in our Safe and prompt hospital discharge factsheet.


4. I know how we have agreed to work collaboratively with colleagues to ensure good fl ow throughout our patient pathways, especially when our full capacity protocol is triggered.


Make yourself familiar with – and have easy access to – our standing medical and nursing guidelines and the full capacity protocol action card for your area.


5. I’ve had my fl u vaccine.


Find out why a fl u jab is especially important this year, get answers to any queries and see where you can get yours.


All of the factsheets, guidelines and other supporting information are available on the Source or by contacting communications on extension 33005.


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