Last year it was reported there were over 111,000 emergency admissions to hospital in the week before Christmas, with a staggering 80,000 from A&E units; an all-time high. In the week leading up to Black Friday in 2014, major units struggled with only a reported six out of 140 units meeting the target to see 95% of patients within a wait of four hours.
Black Friday, the nickname given to the last Friday before Christmas by emergency services, is the most popular time for Christmas parties. It is notoriously known for bringing a surge in alcohol-related crimes and injuries, as workers pour into town centres to celebrate.
If these figures are anything to go by, they indicate just how much pressure A&E units are under and the strain appears to be growing year on year.
New resources
In recent years, we’ve seen alternative treatment centres popping up around the country to help combat the stress.
In 2013, a project was set up to treat heavily intoxicated patients in Cardiff city centre to help ease some of the related pressures on public services, particularly the emergency unit at the University Hospital of Wales. It proved to be a great success.
Cardiff and Vale University Health Board led the establishment of the Alcohol Treatment Centre (ATC), working in collaboration with local authorities, the police and local paramedics. The centre worked to combat the increased demand during the Christmas period, especially around Black Friday, which lands on December 18 in 2015.
Offering help
The centre looked after revellers who had drunk too much but did not need the specialist care provided at the hospitals’ emergency unit. The scheme was a major success and reduced the number of alcohol-related cases in local A&E units, meaning that healthcare experts could focus their care on those that really needed it.
Since 3 January 2015 the ATC has seen approximately 1210 patients; of these only 185 were referred on to the local emergency unit.
Wayne Parsons, the board’s senior nurse for emergency medicine, helped set up the centre and works there on a regular basis as an experienced emergency nurse practitioner. He believes it has had a real impact on patient care and safety.
However, Parsons also says different practices are needed to help combat the number of people needing treatment.
Parsons explains: “The treatment centre was greatly beneficial in helping relieve pressures on the local accident and emergency units, however, we are still seeing a large number of people requiring help. Since Halloween this year we have yet to see a dip in our casualty numbers, which is alarming going into the festive season and demonstrates to us that we are very much crucial in helping to treat those in need to assist local hospital staff.”
Following suit
Other cities have been looking to follow Cardiff’s lead, and it’s clinical models that are allowing cities to adapt the programme to suit the needs of the people in their communities and assist their local health units.
These innovative practices are making a staggering difference to relieve pressures on A&E units when it matters most. We’re fully behind new means of creating a better healthcare system.
Talk to your local Skills for Heath regional director to find out about other innovative ways to improve the healthcare sector.
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