Harrogate hospital employs security staff for first time

Security staff have been employed for the first time at Harrogate District Hospital in response to a growing number of reports of aggressive and abusive behaviour.

The security officers work overnight, particularly focusing on the accident and emergency department, to offer reassurance to staff.

Speaking at a meeting of North Yorkshire County Council’s Harrogate and Knaresborough area constituency committee today, Jonathan Coulter, chief executive of Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust, said:

“We were always reluctant to have our own security service on the hospital site because we felt we were a health service, not anything else. I know other trusts went much more quickly into having dedicated security personnel on site.

“We have in the last six months introduced, between 7pm and 7am overnight, our own security service, which is a bit of a shame that we’ve had to do that, but it was something that made the staff feel safer, particularly in the early hours with the emergency department where Harrogate has never had a problem before, but has had an increasing problem.

“I wouldn’t say it’s anything like we get lots of these incidents, it’s a handful of incidents but they don’t need to happen very often for it to be disturbing and for people to get concerned about it.”

Mr Coulter was responding to a question from Cllr Michael Schofield, who said he had read about an increase in verbal abuse from patients and visitors when they were asked to wear face masks.

Cllr Schofield, a Liberal Democrat who represents Harlow & St George’s division, added:

“I find it quite alarming that staff and volunteers have to deal with this situation.”

Mr Coulter said compliance with mask-wearing was “amazingly” high early in the pandemic and at the beginning of each lockdown, but had dropped since then and some volunteers were being verbally abused for asking people to put on masks.

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Harrogate hospital currently ‘very full’, say health officials

Harrogate hospital managers warned yesterday that “high numbers of very sick patients” is causing long waiting times.

They added that people with less urgent issues are experiencing long waits.

The news comes weeks after Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust reported that it had reached maximum bed capacity at the start of February due to covid and winter pressures.

In a post on its social media, the trust urged people to call the NHS on 111 unless they had a life-threatening or severe illness or injury.

It said:

“During this week at Harrogate District Hospital we are experiencing high numbers of very sick patients, and due to this the hospital is very full. As a result, patients with less urgent issues may experience longer waiting times than usual.

“This isn’t ideal and we will endeavour to keep waiting times as short as possible. We know that patients can be in pain, stressed or scared, and our dedicated team with do everything they can to help.

“Your health is our utmost priority and all we ask for in return is our staff are treated respectfully and do not have to face verbal or physical abuse as they try to do their job.

“Unless you have a life-threatening or severe illness or injury, we would ask you to contact NHS 111 first.”

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Number of covid patients at Harrogate hospital triples

The number of coronavirus patients at Harrogate District Hospital has tripled in the last week, a media briefing heard this morning.

Amanda Bloor, accountable officer at NHS North Yorkshire Clinical Commissioning Group, told North Yorkshire Local Resilience Forum the hospital was treating nine patients compared with three seven days ago.

However, the number remains well below the 67 patients the hospital was treating at the height of the second wave in February.

Ms Bloor added the increase has been mirrored across the county:

“Unfortunately the number of patients does continue to rise. As of yesterday, there were 136 patients across our hospitals in North Yorkshire and York.

“This is up from a figure of 112 this time last week – and 16 of those 136 patients are in intensive care.

“If the number of patients with covid does continue to rise, it could have an impact on our hospitals’ ability to carry out planned procedures.

“We are not seeing that significantly at the moment but we do just need to keep an eye on those numbers.”

A breakdown of the figures shows there are nine patients in both Harrogate and Scarborough hospitals, 26 in York and 92 in South Tees.

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There has not been a covid-related death at the Harrogate hospital in more than three months.

This is due to high levels of vaccine uptake but Ms Bloor said there was still work to do to ensure more people are protected, particularly the younger population.

She said: “The vaccination programme is now open to all age cohorts and is particularly focusing on the younger cohorts.

“With the easing of restrictions from July 19, it is potentially understandable that younger people may feel there is now no advantage of getting vaccinated but we are seeing some younger people in hospital with covid who are actually quite poorly.

“I would continue to urge everyone to come forward for their vaccination – it is the best method of protection.”

Infection rates falling

It comes as Harrogate’s weekly infection rate continues to fall. The rate reached a record high of 534 cases per 100,000 people on July 18 and now stands at 348.

Health officials believe the drop in cases across the country could be down to schools closing for the summer holidays and people meeting up outdoors due to the recent sunny weather.

What they have said for certain though is that the number of people being admitted to hospital with covid needs to start falling as well to show that the virus is really in decline.

Dr Victoria Turner, public health consultant at North Yorkshire County Council, said:

“The number of people in local hospitals with Covid over the last week has continued to increase, however, we do know that hospitalisation data does tend to lag a bit.

“If that starts to go down too, then we can start to be a bit happier that the decline in cases we are seeing at the moment is a real one.”

Harrogate hospital emergency department treating ‘unsustainable’ patient numbers

A senior consultant at Harrogate District Hospital has urged people not to visit the emergency department unless necessary due to an ‘unprecedented’ number of patients.

Dr Helen Law, a consultant in emergency medicine, spoke after figures revealed the number of people seeking treatment had risen by 23 per cent compared with two years ago.

Over seven days from June 1 this year, 1,115 patients attended the emergency department compared with 939 patients during the same period in 2019, pre-covid.

The figures were released by West Yorkshire Association of Acute Trusts, which represents six NHS trusts in Yorkshire. The six trusts together have seen an average rise in the number of emergency patients over the same period of 17%.

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Dr Law said:

“We are seeing unprecedented numbers of people seeking treatment at our hospital and I know the situation is the same across West Yorkshire.

“We are highlighting this because at the current rate it is simply not sustainable to treat this many people on any long-term basis.

“Emergency departments are seeing significant numbers of patients seeking treatment for issues that are non-emergencies.

“Everyone in the NHS is here because we want to make people better and no one would ever say, ‘Don’t come to hospital’.

“But I would urge anyone planning on coming to the emergency department to ask themselves: ‘Is this an emergency?'”

The increase in patients is not believed to be linked to coronavirus.

The number of covid patients has remained low at Harrogate District Hospital over summer and currently number just three.