London North West University Healthcare (LNWH) says it also sees more ambulances arriving at its hospitals than any other trust in the country
Around one in 14 patients waited more than 12 hours in A&E at hospitals run by a North London NHS Trust in August, according to the latest NHS data.
London North West University Healthcare (LNWH) was the worst performing of the four North West London Trusts against this metric, which it puts down to having the “largest and busiest A&E service” in the region.
The proportion of patients waiting 12 hours or more in A&E at hospitals run by the trust are increasing, with the 12-hour target not having been met in any single month over the past 13 months.
Data released by the NHS reveals that, of the 27,792 patients who attended the emergency department at LNWH in August, 1,872 faced delays of 12 hours or more. Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust saw the second highest number of attendees, at 24,677, but only 572 faced similarly long waits.
LNWH told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that the trust receives “the highest number of ambulances” of any in the country, with the number of people attending the emergency departments continuing to rise this year. In the last two weeks, it claims to have seen two days with “the highest number of ambulance attendances in our history”.
The trust oversees four hospitals in the region; Central Middlesex Hospital, Ealing Hospital, Northwick Park Hospital, and St Mark’s Hospital. As well as having the largest and busiest A&E service in North West London, the trust also points to a significant number of attendees needing mental health care as a reason for long wait times.
A LNWH spokesperson said: “Our emergency departments also see the highest number of patients requiring mental health care of any acute trust in North West London. This level of demand means that many patients cannot be transferred to specialist mental health care within 12 hours.
“Our clinical teams continue to work extremely hard to admit patients who need inpatient care as soon as possible. However, this can be challenging, not only because of the volume of demand for care, but also because of external factors that affect our ability to discharge patients who are otherwise ready to leave hospital, such as delays to social care packages and to being able to provide necessary equipment to allow people to go home safely.
“This in turn can make it difficult to admit patients who need care, which places greater pressure on our emergency departments.”
Patients who experience long wait times may find this distressing and have a worse experience of care. In order to keep them safe while waiting, the trust said it monitors emergency staffing levels “very closely” to ensure that they are kept at the same level of care and supervision as on a ward. Despite the demand on the service, it adds that it is proud that the department’s friends and family feedback “remains the best in North West London over the last 12 months”.
In order to reduce long waiting times, the trust points to several recent projects aimed at reducing the pressure on the emergency departments. These include increasing capacity in the Clinical Decision Units, opening a discharge ready unit for those patients who are medically ready to leave hospital but who need support from external partners before they can do so safely, and providing an Older Persons Short Stay Unit so that older patients can receive appropriate specialist care earlier in their hospital stay.
The LNWH spokesperson added: “More generally, we continue to work on improving our pathways so that patients at all stages can receive the right care in the right place. This includes working closely with partners across health and care to help patients leave hospital as soon as they are ready, which in turn provides space to look after those patients who need care most urgently. We monitor and seek to improve these pathways at a dedicated weekly meeting.”
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