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‘Significantly more to do’ to improve urgent and emergency healthcare in Lincolnshire




Urgent and emergency healthcare in Lincolnshire has made ‘considerable progress’ in recent months - but there remains ‘significantly more to do’.

That is the conclusion of a report to be discussed by Lincolnshire County Council’s health and scrutiny committee today (April 17).

They will consider an update on urgent and emergency care from the NHS Lincolnshire Integrated Care Board (ICB), which details the actions being taken locally in response to the national Delivery Plan for Recovering Urgent and Emergency Care Services.

There have been improvements to ambulance handover times
There have been improvements to ambulance handover times

“Considerable work has been undertaken, and progress achieved in 2023/24 and during the winter period we have continued to see the impact of this on performance,” the report states.

“However, there is still significantly more to do to ensure a timely, seamless, and connected urgent and emergency care pathway for our patients.”

The report highlights improvements handover times and ambulance response times compared to other areas under the East Midlands Ambulance Service umbrella, although they remain over target for category two emergency calls, which include strokes.

“The 30-minute mean response time for category two incidents for Lincolnshire ICB remains over 30 minutes, however considerable work has been undertaken to secure improvements in response times by all partners to ensure ambulance handovers are completed in a timely manner to enable effective community response and flow within hospital and community settings is optimised,” the report said.

“There has also been a significant improvement in long handover delays, for example a 92% reduction in four-hour handover delays at ULHT sites, which has had a positive impact on the number of lost hours to ambulance crews due to ambulance handover delays during winter 23/24.

“This ensures that patients in the community can be responded to in a timelier manner… the category two mean response time for Lincolnshire was typically less than the overall EMAS Trust average.

“For example, in February 24, the Lincolnshire ICB position was 47.39 minutes compared to the EMAS Trust mean of 49.45 minutes.”

Patients being seen in an emergency also fell below targets.

“The ambition to treat and discharge or admit 76% of patients was a new target from April 1, 2023,” the report added.

“The Lincolnshire plan to achieve 76% by March 2024 was based on all A&E and Urgent Treatment Centre activity within the system.

“All types of activity performance for February 24 was 65.1% against a plan of 74.2%, in comparison, the Midlands performance was 69.5% and the England performance in February was 70.9%.

“Significant focus has been given to incremental improvements towards achieving this ambition during March against a backdrop of increased urgent care activity.”

The report highlighted that ‘a difficult summer of increased demand and the ongoing impact of industrial action’ - plus floods across the county - had put pressure on Lincolnshire healthcare over the past 12 months.

However, this winter has seen lower levels of Covid and flu.

Discussing the Lincolnshire Winter Plan, the report added: “At a national, regional, and local level it was impossible to predict how typical winter infectious diseases would profile making planning a challenge.

“However, we planned for similar levels of Covid 19 related hospital admissions as the previous year, based on learning from the southern hemisphere we also planned for normal levels of hospitalisations due to influenza.

“During winter 22/23 we experienced the unexpected impact of scarlet fever, and while we did not know what might impact this winter, we planned for the impact of something unexpected and similar.

“Fortunately, Winter 23/24 profiled in an atypical way from an infectious disease perspective, we have seen low levels of influenza and Covid and we have not seen any unexpected profiling of any infectious diseases.

“We have however seen some peaks in demand during early autumn and late winter with overall high attendance amongst those with frailty and long-term health conditions.

Responding to the report, a Healthwatch Lincolnshire statement said: “Regarding the report on winter healthcare services and ambulance handovers, Healthwatch welcomes any improvements that contribute to better patient outcomes and experiences during the challenging winter period.

“We commend efforts to enhance ambulance handover processes, as timely transfers are crucial for maintaining emergency care services.

“However, we remain committed to monitoring the situation closely and advocating for continued improvements in winter healthcare provision to meet the evolving needs of the population.”



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