Patients delays at Staffordshire's three main hospitals spark concern

Volunteers on behalf of watchdog Healthwatch Staffordshire have reviewed standards in the discharge lounges at County Hospital in Stafford, Royal Stoke, and Queens Hospital Burton.

The lounges are used by hospitals as holding areas for patients waiting for medication or transport home, to free up beds on wards.

After three months worth of evidence collated by Healthwatch last year their report, which has now been published, has highlighted a raft of concerns.

It stated there were ‘serious delays’ in obtaining medication and with patients being moved from wards to the lounges.

While they said there were also delays of up to two hours in securing transport home for people. Some patients observed by the reviewers were considered to be ‘too ill’ to be spending long periods of time in the lounge.

The report also highlighted poor signposting, cramped conditions and a lack of criteria for staff around deciding whether people should be kept on a ward or moved to the holding areas.

Healthwatch has now made formal recommendations to each hospital to address the concerns.

Executive chairman of the group Robin Morrison said: “The issue of Discharge Lounges was a common theme for concern to Healthwatch, so our Enter and View volunteers set out to review the issues and make recommendations for improvement to the hospitals.

“Our aim is to ensure patients, carers and hospital staff are given a clear voice when care is not deemed adequate, and that hospitals are held accountable. Only by examining the problem and making recommendations for best practice across all three hospitals can progress be made.

“All patients are entitled to the highest quality of care from start to finish and the Discharge Lounge must be seen as an integral part of that patient experience.

“Patients in Staffordshire are clearly not alone in their experience and similar issues have been reported nationally.

“We are delighted that all three Staffordshire hospitals are working to improve the patient experience and taking on board our recommendations. We will continue to monitor progress.”

Trish Rowson, director of nursing, quality and safety at University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust, responsible for Royal Stoke University Hospital and County Hospital, Stafford, said: “UHNM NHS Trust has developed a strong working partnership with Healthwatch Staffordshire, who provide invaluable support by listening to our patients and sharing their views feedback and concerns in an independent, structured way. This relationship helps us to ensure our improvement programme is truly patient focused and the Trust recognises that this is key to offering assurance to our local community, patients and commissioners.

“We would like to thank Healthwatch for this most recent study, which looked at the experience of our patients who were discharged from hospital via a discharge lounge. An improvement plan was written as a result of the report with a specific focus on improving patient awareness and patient comfort.

“Discharge Lounge patient information leaflets have been designed and staff have clear operational guidelines which specify those patients who are unsuitable for transfer to the lounge to support the smooth flow from ward to home. Whilst this works extremely well the majority of the time there are always exceptions out of our control when the Trust is under extreme pressure for beds. To minimise the impact on patients who may need to stay for longer periods than expected our discharge lounges provide a comfortable environment for all patients to wait. Meals, refreshments and snacks are provided. Patients can be accommodated on beds, recliners or chairs with radio, TV and magazines available to help pass the time.”