Hillingdon, Northwick Park, Ealing and Chelsea & Westminster Hospitals have all received Government funding for new discharge lounges to help cut A&E waiting times.
The lounges, four of 42 discharge lounges across the country announced by the Government, will help to free up hospital beds and reduce waits for patients waiting to be admitted from A&E. Rather than staying in an A&E bed while waiting for a prescription or transport, these areas provide a comfortable area to wait and means their A&E bed is free to be used by someone waiting to be seen. These areas have TVs, hot meals and discharge lounge nurses on hand to attend to people’s needs while they are waiting.
These new facilities are part of the £50 million investment that was announced by the Health and Social Care Secretary Steve Barclay in January to help free up hospital beds and cut down on waiting times for patients ahead of next winter.
Northwick Park Hospital in north west London is already seeing the benefits of £360,000 worth of funding with six new beds and 10 chairs in its lounge – improving flow through the hospital and impacting nearly 2,500 patients.
NHSE National Director of Integrated Urgent and Emergency Care and NHSE Deputy Chief Operating Officer, Sarah-Jane Marsh, says:
“The hard work of health and social care teams across the country has meant we have seen improvements in ambulance response times and A&E performance since December, despite the impact of seasonal viruses, industrial action, and higher than usual bed occupancy.
“These dedicated spaces, alongside the range of actions we have outlined in our urgent and emergency care recovery plan, including thousands of new beds, hundreds of new ambulances and measures to help treat more people in the community, will help us further improve patient experience and help avoid unnecessary hospital admissions ahead of next winter.”
Charlotte Benjamin, Chief Medical Officer for North West London ICS, says:
“We know people sometimes wait too long in A&E and this is really welcome funding to make sure we can keep people comfortable whilst they wait to go home but also ensure that we start seeing the next patient as soon as possible.
“This is one of a number of initiatives being put in place across NW London to improve flow through our hospital and reduce waiting times.”