Following significant pressures on the health and care system across the Island over the last 24 hours and difficulties in discharging patients from St Mary’s Hospital, it has been necessary to postpone routine in-patient and day case surgery today (Friday) say the Isle of Wight NHS Trust.
The decision to postpone surgery was taken to create capacity at St Mary’s to care for patients who need immediate care. All patients affected by these postponements have been advised and will be rescheduled as soon as possible.
To achieve a consistent flow of patients through St Mary’s Hospital the aim is to discharge 50 people per day, subject to their medical care and an assessment that they are safe to discharge being complete. The level of discharges achieved has been below the 50 required.
Shaun Stacey, Chief Operating Officer at Isle of Wight NHS Trust, commented:
“The difficulties in discharging patients from hospital has meant that we have had to create additional capacity to cope with the number of patients we are currently caring for. We can only create additional capacity by releasing the space and staff we use for surgery and that means that we have had to regrettably postpone some patient surgery. We only do that as a last resort but the current difficulties we find ourselves in mean that we have no choice. We have apologised to every patient whose surgery we have had to postpone.
“We recognise that patients, supported by their families, want to be discharged to a location that they feel comfortable with, whether that is the patient’s own home, to stay with a relative or to a nursing or residential care home. We would encourage patients and families to plan for discharge as soon as they are admitted to hospital. Sometimes we will need patients to move, when they are medically fit for discharge, to interim locations in the community to free up beds for those who are ill and need to be in a hospital bed.”
The Trust is appealing for Islanders to call the Island based NHS 111 telephone number if they feel they need urgent medical help before making a visit to St Mary’s. Dr Mark Pugh, Medical Director at Isle of Wight NHS Trust commented:
“We really need people to think about whether they need to attend St. Mary’s. If you think you need help we would ask you to phone NHS 111 first and they may be able to offer you alternative treatment options like seeing your GP or a pharmacist. On the other hand, if it’s an emergency, the NHS 111 service can send out an ambulance directly to you if that’s what’s required or will advise you to attend St. Mary’s.
Article continues below this advertisement “When you call 111 the call is answered by a highly trained call handler, supported by nurses and paramedics based at St. Mary’s Hospital. They will assess the symptoms and put the caller directly in touch with the people who can help; for example, an out-of -hours doctor, a district nurse, an emergency dentist — or it may be something as simple as a 24 hour pharmacy.
“999 is for emergencies and life-threatening situations only and the Emergency Department (A&E) is for serious, life-threatening injuries and illnesses that need urgent medical attention”.
“It is vitally important for those who have been unwell with vomiting and/or diarrhoea recently, especially if they have had these symptoms in the past 48 hours, not to come to the hospital unless it is an emergency”.
