Royal Stoke Hospital already facing winter pressures - boss

Royal Stoke and Stafford's County Hospital are expecting a 'challenging' winter, says the chief executive

Winter has already arrived for healthcare staff and patients in Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire, according to hospital bosses.

University Hospitals of North Midlands (UHNM), which runs Royal Stoke and Stafford's County Hospital, has seen a surge in patients with Covid in recent weeks.

There has also been a drop in its A&E waiting time performance.

Chief executive Tracy Bullock said October was "challenging".

In September, almost 70% of patients were admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours of arrival at A&E. This had become just over 60% at the end of October, the hospital's trust's board heard in a meeting.

A new clinical decision unit created in the emergency department at Stoke, for patients waiting for diagnostic investigations and tests, had been due to "go live" on October 27.

But a leak in the roof meant the opening had to be delayed until 13 November.

The trust has a winter surge plan to try to cope with demand on its services.

To free up beds, patients who do not need acute care will be made aware of other parts of the health service that could provide treatment.

And patients taken to the Frail Elderly Assessment Unit will be redirected to the most suitable service, if appropriate.

"We have had a challenging October and we are firmly in winter in terms of how the NHS is facing the impact," said Ms Bullock.

But a "quite sharp and sudden increase" in Covid had dropped to about 70 patients needing care, from more than double that a couple of weeks ago, she said.

She added: "We have single numbers of patients with flu. We are not seeing big numbers yet but we are very early in the winter period."

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