THE James Paget University Hospital is missing its target to discharge patients from hospital when they are ready. The problem is often caused by there being no community hospital or social care services arranged for them to go to.
THE James Paget University Hospital is missing its target to discharge patients from hospital when they are ready.
The problem is often caused by there being no community hospital or social care services arranged for them to go to.
The local target is for just 2.5pc of beds to be blocked, but so far this year it has been more than 5pc.
The current figure is 14 beds, which is one of the lowest figures the hospital has achieved, but its new target is 12 beds.
At Friday's council of governors meeting, Julie Cave, director of finance and performance, said: “Delayed transfers of care are an ongoing problem. We have been having discussions with the PCT [NHS Yarmouth and Waveney].
“They had agreed additional funding for posts at the mental health trust and in community services which have partly been recruited to.
“We have made an agreement with the community hospitals about getting people out of acute beds. This is purely around patients that do not need to be in an acute care bed.”
The Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital had managed to reduce the numbers of beds blocked from an average of nearly 60 to around 30 in recent weeks, but last week the figure is back up to 59. But the picture is still better than a year ago when there were 70 to 80 beds blocked each day.
The problem contributes to the hospital's bed shortages, which have in turn led to long waits for some patients in A&E.
ends
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