Ambulances waiting up to five hours as SE trust feels covid pressure

HSJ has been told that ambulances have been waiting up to five hours to hand over patients at Medway Foundation Trust, which has around 90 covid patients. 

The trust is currently continuing with elective work but covid patients are taking up close to 20 per cent of its beds. Sources have told HSJ that bed occupancy at the trust is already very high – with a high proportion of acutely ill patients - and there are issues with discharging patients into nursing homes which is affecting the ability to admit patients swiftly through A&E

In the 30 days to 5 November, Medway has gone from averaging no covid deaths a week to 13 - one of the sharpest increases in the country. The trust is now recording the highest weekly covid hospital death rate in the south east region.

The trust has confirmed some of the current covid patients were infected in hospital. It said these cases were investigated immediately and the outbreak is under contrtol.

The trust also had an outbreak of hospital acquired covid in mid-October which initially affected six patients and led to three wards being closed to admissions. Four staff members were found to be positive at that time and were asked to self-isolate.

Other trusts in Kent have also come under pressure from increasing numbers of covid patients over the last 10 days. However, the numbers of covid patients being treated in ICU is understood to be much lower than in the first wave.

Kent’s director of public health Andrew Scott-Clark told a council meeting on Monday that it had been “a very difficult weekend” at Medway FT, and that the county’s other acute trusts – East Kent Hospitals University FT, Dartford and Gravesham Trust and Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells Trust – were also seeing an upsurge in admissions.

He suggested the second wave was hitting the county about four weeks later than the English average with more cases now being seen in the working age population. However, he also highlighted an increase in covd in the older population in places like Swale and Dartford. Current infection rates – for the week to 6 November – are 153 per 100,000 people in Kent and 132 in Medway: both have been rising rapidly.

At s Dartford and Gravesham Trust’s board meeting last week, chief executive Louise Ashley said: “There are now 40+ covid positive patients in the hospital which is a significant rise from where the trust was just a week ago.”

HSJ asked South East Coast Ambulance Service FT and Medway FT for comment. We were given a system-wide response. Wilf Williams, the strategic lead for the NHS response to Coronavirus in Kent and Medway, said: “As we did in the first wave, hospitals and the wider NHS are working together to respond to increasing levels of activity.

“Monday was a busy day for several hospitals and our ambulance service, which unfortunately meant that some patients waited longer than we would like.

“All emergency departments are adapting to reduced waiting capacity during the pandemic.

“Our services are open and we are here to treat and care for all patients. Patient safety and delivering the best care remains our top priority. Hospitals, South East Coast Ambulance service and wider partners across Kent and Medway are working tirelessly to manage the demand and minimise handover delays.”

HSJ’s analysis of occupancy rates shows Kent and Medway Sustainability and Transformation Partnership had 3.7 per cent of acute beds occupied by covid patients on 27 October – just two weeks ago - with 7.5 per cent of Medway’s beds affected and 9.3 per cent of Dartford and Gravesham’s.