Acting chief executive of the Southern HSC Trust, Colm McCafferty has revealed that a contingency protocol is regularly activated at Daisy Hill Hospital and Craigavon Area Hospital, to deal with exceptionally high volumes of patients, as was the case a few days ago.
Speaking at Thursday’s (January 30) board meeting of the Southern HSC Trust, Mr McCafferty stated: “On Tuesday past the full capacity protocol was initiated in the Southern Trust.
“That’s an internal mechanism when there is really high demand which is causing some concerns around capacity delays and ED – over and above what unfortunately has been the norm over the past number of years.
“It’s a mechanism to maximise internal collaboration, communication, co-operation across all the various constituents that make up our ED hospital flow and discharge.
“It was [activated] for a period of time to deal with really high demand, and it did have some limited success with regards to reducing and alleviating some of the pressures.
“It’s not unique for us to have done that. It happened already a couple of times this year, and unfortunately, it’s not a unique or irregular occurrence.”
The acting chief executive went on to issue an apology in relation to lengthy waiting lists: “[I want to] draw board members’ attention to the phenomenon of very, very lengthy waiting lists, which does require considerable new investments and increase in capacity.
“I want to reiterate the Trust and my apologies to people who are spending way too long on waiting lists for consultant-led appointments or indeed for elective care.
“There is a focus on maximising recovery around day procedures, collective care, consultant appointments, red flag appointments and so forth, but that is still slower than what I would like it to be.
“We are affording it as much attention and as much resource as what we possibly have available to us at this moment.”
Mr McCafferty continued: “Overall, we continue to manage services in a context of rising demand across all of the various specialisms, and indeed all of the life stages, from children through adult services, and indeed elderly population.
“Resource challenge is considerable, including the financial environment we’re working in.
“We have recurrent and long-standing workforce deficits and challenges to recruit particular specialisms into various fields, which ultimately has a particular impact on performance and so forth.
“It’s also worth noting – particularly at this time of year, in the context of the very significant pressures on our Emergency Departments – that we have an ageing and indeed antiquated acute hospital estate which is not conducive to optimum patient experience, or certainly not in terms of the environment that staff are having to work in.
“In addition to that, again, across many aspects of our services, we have very lengthy waiting lists.
“We continue to be very challenged in relation to our unscheduled care. That is particularly felt on both ED sites, on our two main hospitals.
“We’re still in the midst of winter pressures, the flu season, and ultimately, the ever-present demand versus capacity manifests itself in overcrowding, ambulance waits, limited ward space.
“Unfortunately, [what has now become] almost part of normal service is ‘corridor care’, because ultimately we have to care for patients in whatever space we can find.
“There are significant challenges associated with all of that in relation to delayed complex discharges, having sufficient community infrastructure and support to enable people to stay safe and stay well within the home, and avoid ED emissions and so forth.
“But the focus continues on same-day emergency care, ensuring the best possible ward flow, timely discharges, but it remains a very difficult environment with regards to that.
“And my appeal is that we continue to promote alternatives to ED, and there are a number of options around pharmacy, GP, ‘phone first’ prior to going to ED.
“Having said that, if there is somebody acutely unwell, I am asking that there’s no delay with regards to presentation at ED, and it’s important that we’re clear with regard to that messaging.”
