Bells for patients waiting in hospital corridors

The guidance is over patients awaiting treatment

Hospital patients left to wait in corridors at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary will be given bells to attract the attention of medical staff.

NHS Grampian admitted the policy - which is part of plan to free up ambulances queuing outside A&E - put patients at higher risk.

But they said people at home waiting for an ambulance to arrive were at an even higher risk.

The union Unison called for the plan to be put on hold and warned it would lead to more patients waiting in corridors.

Guidance called Safe Transfer of Patients in ARI has been issued to staff at the hospital and came into force on Monday.

It aims to ensure patients spend no more than 30 minutes in an ambulance outside A&E.

They should also spend no longer than 30 minutes waiting to be admitted to a ward when they are ready to leave the emergency department.

The bell is said to be like a doorbell. It is not attached to a linked system but is loud enough so that people can hear it.

The guidance document, seen by BBC Scotland News, states: "A member of the nursing team from the receiving ward must be allocated the responsibility of caring for the patient, taking all available steps to maintain the patient’s privacy and dignity whilst in the non-standard patient area or corridor.

"In addition, the nurse will ensure that the patient has the ability to call for assistance should this be required; this may be the use of a hand bell.”

Sandra MacLeod, the lead for medicine and unscheduled care at NHS Grampian, said the approach was about freeing up ambulances so they could attend more emergency calls.

“What this is looking to do is balance the risk for patients right across our system," she said.

"I understand that people within hospital, within an ambulance, have supervision - they are being seen within an emergency department, and within wards. There’s always somebody there who can see them.

"Yes this will increase risk to a degree. But I would go back to say that the people who are at home, who have called an ambulance, there is nobody there with them so they are at even higher risk, so it’s trying to balance that risk.”

She added: “This situation is far from ideal. Each of the ward areas have identified the maximum number [of patients] that they feel that they can safely manage, so all of these have been taken into consideration. We have risk assessments in place."

Unison is calling for the plans to be put in hold, claiming it will lead to more people being left unattended in corridors because of a lack of staff and beds.

“Nobody likes to see ambulances queueing outside a hospital, but the reason is that there is not enough health staff to provide adequate care," regional organiser Simon Watson said.

"Moving people inside the hospital will not conjure up more people to treat them. Instead, hard-pressed staff will be pushed to breaking point, and patients' safety will be put at risk.

"How bad are things when staff are being told to give patients a hand bell to attract attention? The health board should be honest about the situation, declare a major incident, and move to prioritise life-threatening cases."

A Scottish Ambulance Service spokesperson said: “We’ve been working very closely with NHS Grampian to reduce the time it’s taking for ambulance crews to handover patients at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary and Dr Gray's Hospital in Elgin.

"Anything that we can jointly do to help reduce the number of ambulances waiting outside A&E is going to be good for patients and we will continue to work collaboratively with NHS Grampian around this and patient flow through their hospitals.”