We’ll do our best to prevent a beds crisis (From Gazette)
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We’ll do our best to prevent a beds crisis
11:10am Tuesday 2nd November 2010 in Health By Helen Orrell
PATIENTS will not be denied a hospital bed despite Government cuts to social care, the boss of Colchester’s hospital trust has pledged.
Dr Gordon Coutts, Colchester Hospital University NHS Foundation Trust’s chief executive, said he was working to ensure the town’s two hospitals did not suffer a bed crisis due to council cutbacks.
He was responding to fears cuts in council funding could increase pressure on hospitals, with beds being blocked by elderly and vulnerable patients who cannot be discharged because social services are not able to support them.
Dr Coutts, who started work at the trust in September, said: “We are working proactively to stop it occurring.
“We don’t think this will happen here.
“It’s not clear how social care will be provided, but it is two years before it kicks off, which is still some time away.
“We will have to make productivity gains through innovation and being creative about the way we do things.”
He said the trust was in talks with NHS North East Essex to speed up discharge and treat more patients in the community.
He added: “We need to make sure the right patients come in at the right time.
“It’s not to anyone’s benefit if patients can’t get in, or aren’t treated in the right place.”
He said the trust had also launched a new scheme to guarantee elderly patients see a consultant within 48 hours of being referred.
Dr Coutts said: “It’s another way of dealing with the same problem by offering quick access to a consultant. You are not having inappropriate patients coming in to hospital.
“They see a consultant they trust and respect, and the right decisions can be made about where they can get the best treatment.”
The trust said it was also talking to Tendring Council and Essex County Council about how to manage the cuts, and had made plans for an extra 50 to 80 beds to be available at Colchester General Hospital at any one time to avoid overcrowding this winter.
