West Yorkshire emergency care under 'continued pressure'

Services were under "continued pressure" and people continued to experience delays in accessing care

Improvements are needed to reduce pressure on urgent and emergency care across West Yorkshire, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) has said.

Services were under "continued pressure" and people had experienced delays accessing emergency care as a result, inspectors found.

A report found there were also issues with staffing and capacity, while some services had struggled to meet demand.

Health bosses said they were "committed" to improving the system.

The CQC was looking at the county's Integrated Care Systems - the partnerships between organisations which plan and deliver health and care services.

It inspected more than 15 individual services across the region between March and May, including care services, GP surgeries, Bradford Royal Infirmary and Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust.

'Matter of priority'

Ann Ford, CQC director of operations network, said: "During the urgent and emergency care inspections across West Yorkshire, staff were working hard under sustained pressure.

"It was reassuring that leaders were working together to support their workforce and to identify opportunities where improvements could be made.

"However, people continued to experience delays in accessing care and treatment," she said.

The CQC found some A&E departments experienced long delays

The CQC found people's experiences of emergency departments had been varied depending on which service they accessed.

"Some had long delays, while others performed relatively well," Ms Ford said.

"This was mainly caused by delays in discharge, due to people being unable to access community or social care services which must be addressed as a matter of priority," she added.

CQC inspectors found:

• Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust had seen some improvement in response times and handover delays, but remained below its performance targets

• Staffing and capacity issues in both care homes and domiciliary social care services had sometimes impacted on the timely and safe discharge of patients from hospital

• Some social care staff also reported significant challenges in relation to hospital discharge processes, which in some cases had resulted in people having to return to hospital

• However, the report found there was a good understanding of the problem, with officials looking to improve the process

• Significant staffing challenges with the NHS 111 service, which had seen an increase in demand, particularly from people trying to access dental treatment

• It said the service was in the process of recruiting new staff and a system was in place to manage dental advice and assessment

• Staff sickness rates and increased patient numbers had also led to some issues at Bradford Royal Infirmary's emergency department, the CQC said

• It also had increased vacancy rates due to difficulty retaining staff

• However, the trust had implemented a number of measures, including a recruitment programme and offering staff flexible working conditions

• Mental health services in Wakefield were found to be delivering "person-centred care" and responded to urgent needs in a timely way

In response to the inspection, Dr Adam Sheppard, Chair of West Yorkshire Urgent and Emergency Care Board, said it had been helpful to work with the CQC.

"Their reflections on areas of good practice and good relationships with coordinated action are reassuring [and] it is also notable that they highlight consistent pressure, staffing and social care capacity as issues in West Yorkshire, as these feature consistently in most areas across the country as challenges that need to be addressed," he said.

"We are acutely aware of the challenges faced by our staff and by local people and are absolutely committed to working together across the whole of the system to better join up care, and to deliver safe care for all," he added.