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17
Dec
Harrogate hospital provides extra beds amid high A&E demand
Harrogate District Hospital has been forced to open extra beds for its emergency department amid high demand.
Managers at Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust warned people this week the emergency department was “extremely busy”, and urged people only to attend with severe or life-threatening conditions.
Hospital admissions have increased sharply nationally due to an increase in covid, norovirus and respiratory syncytial virus.
Jonathan Coulter, chief executive of the trust, told the Stray Ferret it had been forced to open an extra 20 beds to cope with demand last weekend.
The hospital has a total of 300 beds to cater for people attending the emergency department.
Mr Coulter said the move to open extra beds was “significant” as the trust would normally plan to do this in January.
He said:
We forecast and planned to do it [open extra beds] after Christmas, so doing it before Christmas is unusual.
We would normally be opening beds in January, that’s when we normally get the peak. It’s a combination of when the flu season hits and what the weather is like.
Mr Coulter added that the trust has had to be “flexible” to cope with the demand caused by respiratory illnesses.
Jonathan Coulter, chief executive at Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust.
The move comes as NHS officials have urged people to get vaccinated against respiratory viruses.
Professor Stephen Powis, the national medical director of the NHS, warned the number of admissions could continue to increase if people didn’t protect themselves with flu, covid and RSV jabs.
Meanwhile, Wes Streeting, the health secretary, has urged hospital trusts to put patient safety before waiting time targets this winter.
He said:
We inherited a broken NHS that saw annual winter crisis as the norm. This year, we’re seeing record pressures on services as we move into December. This winter I want to see patient safety prioritised as we brace ourselves for the coming months. I’m asking trusts to focus on ambulance delays, handovers and the longest A&E waits.
Last week, the Stray Ferret reported that the hospital was already struggling to meet its emergency waiting time targets.
In November, Harrogate hospital saw 6,321 people attend its emergency department — slightly more than the 6,315 who attended in October.
For trusts across the country, the national target is for 95% of patients who attend A&E to be admitted, discharged or transferred in under four hours.
Last month in Harrogate, 68.7% were seen within that timeframe — a drop from 72.5% in October.
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