6.5 per cent growth in emergency demand at East Lancs

According to newly published minutes, the trust’s March board meeting was told that its non-elective admissions “between November and January had increased 6.5 per cent on the same period last year with attendances up 11 per cent on [the] year overall”.

The minutes continued: “Members were advised that a health economy wide recovery plan for [the first quarter of 2013-14] was being designed and deployed and further details will be shared at the April meeting.

“Members noted that particular pressures were being experienced in the Emergency Department with between 100 and 700 more complex cases being seen on a weekly basis than at the same time in the previous year.”

Planning for “next year’s winter pressures had already commenced incorporating learning from the experiences this year”.

They added that “dialogue was taking place across the whole of the health economy as commissioners were also experiencing a surge in demand for primary care services. Members noted that robust measurements for measuring access to primary care services were also being developed to establish greater analysis of the health economy needs and emergency attendance patterns to inform planning processes.”