Nottingham’s main hospitals remain under “extreme pressure” as rising emergency demand continues to place strain on services, according to a report due to be presented to the board of Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust.
The trust’s latest operational update, ahead of a board meeting on Thursday 12 March, shows emergency departments are continuing to struggle to meet national waiting time standards.
In January, 60.3 per cent of patients attending the trust’s emergency departments were seen, treated or discharged within four hours. This was slightly down from 61.4 per cent in December and remains well below the NHS target that 95 per cent of patients should be seen within four hours.
The report also highlights a rise in the number of seriously ill patients arriving at hospital. Between November and January, admissions of patients with a National Early Warning Score of four or more – an indicator of patients who may be clinically deteriorating – increased by around 20 per cent.
Hospital leaders say this increase in acuity is contributing to sustained pressure across emergency pathways and inpatient wards.
To help manage winter demand, the trust opened an additional 60 beds during December and January.
Despite these measures, the report says emergency pathways remain under “extreme pressure”, with delays in admitting patients from emergency departments linked to limited bed availability across acute medicine, geriatric medicine and respiratory services.
Ambulance handover delays remain an ongoing issue, although the report notes performance within 45 minutes has improved compared with previous years. Delays continue to occur when patients cannot be transferred quickly from emergency departments to inpatient wards.
The trust also reports that implementation of a new electronic patient record system in November has had an impact on referral-to-treatment performance for planned care, affecting some waiting time metrics while the system was introduced.
The update forms part of the trust’s regular operational performance report to the board, which reviews activity levels, patient flow and service pressures across Nottingham’s hospital sites.
Board members will review the figures alongside wider discussions on patient safety, staffing and service improvement at the meeting on Thursday.
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