Lincolnshire hospital chief says people are 'no longer shocked' by our delays and ambulance waits

A hospital chief says people are “no longer shocked” by discharge delays or long ambulance waits.

United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust is currently running a series of projects under the “Breaking the Cycle” umbrella to speed up the discharge of medically fit patients to clear the backlog across the system.

These include a recently launched scheme to use care homes for “Active Recovery Beds” to help the rehabilitation of patients between being discharged and going home.

Lincolnshire County Council’s Health Scrutiny Committee on Wednesday had an update from Chief Executive Andrew Morgan and other members of the trust.

During discussions, Coun Lucille Hague said she had been part of a team looking to improve discharges a decade ago.

“I have to say nothing has improved,” she said.

Mr Morgan said: “This doesn’t surprise me, but slightly saddens or disappoints me. I suppose that this is a long-running topic.

“Rightly, or wrongly, I say on occasion that we’ve normalised it I think. We’ve gotten used to it being as it is, and are no longer shocked in terms of both discharge delays but also sadly some of the waits that we have in A&E departments across the country.”

He said, however, that his approach was to “absolutely be shocked by some of the waits’ because they shouldn’t be acceptable or tolerated.

Mr Morgan apologised to Lincolnshire residents.

“I’m really clear and upfront with people: we have experienced some unacceptable waits in our A&E departments and some other acceptable waits to unload ambulances.”

Councillors were told that feedback from the latest measures was positive and further investment was taking place including a revamp of discharge lounges, new pharmacy technicians and additional transport out from discharge. Multi-agency discharge events were also taking place on a regular basis to ensure patients were flowing through the system better.

Staff had been told to view discharges as just as important as active care.

Mr Morgan said the emphasis was on self-care or attending alternatives such as pharmacies, however, he acknowledged GP colleagues are “really, really busy” too.