Ambulance traffic at Shropshire’s main hospitals rose by more than three times the West Midlands average last year, a report says.
The majority of the increase was at Telford’s Princess Royal Hospital, but local NHS bosses say “no direct causal link” can yet be drawn between this and “any changes in service delivery locally”.
In-Hospital Commissioning head Emma Pyrah adds that nearly half the patients dropped off at the PRH and Royal Shrewsbury Hospital were discharged, rather than admitted.
In her report for Shropshire CCG’s governing body, Ms Pyrah says this suggests “their clinical needs and acuity were relatively low” and could have been dealt with differently.
She writes: “Over the last 12 months, and particularly this winter, Shropshire and Telford and Wrekin have recorded higher than expected increases in ambulance demand.
“Whilst increases have been experienced across the region, our local demand increases are higher than elsewhere.”
Ms Pyrah says the newly-formed Ambulance Demand and Pathways Group found that the ambulance service drop-offs in Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin were eight per cent higher in 2018-19 than in 2017-18.
The equivalent increase across the whole West Midlands Ambulance Service region was 2.6 per cent.
She adds: “The majority of the 11 per cent increase in A&E attendances in 2018 compared to 2017 relates to a. walk-in acivity, b. the out-of-hours period and c. the Princess Royal Hospital in particular.
“At this stage, no direct causal link can be established between this increase in ambulance demand and any changes in service delivery locally.”
The PRH and RSH are run by the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust [SaTH].
Ms Pyrah writes: “Almost half the ambulance conveyances to SaTH were discharged rather than admitted, which indicates that their clinical needs/acuity were relatively low and could potentially have been managed through alternative pathways to acute.
“Further work is underway to determine what types of service outside of acute are needed to manage this activity.”
Statistics within Ms Pyrah’s report say ambulance arrivals at the RSH A&E department rose by 1,955 between 2017 and 2018, while arrivals at the PRH went up by 2,377.
The report will be discussed by the Shropshire Clinical Commissioning Group when it meets in Whitchurch on Wednesday.
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