Health chiefs' pledge to improve
IPSWICH Hospital was off black alert today as health chiefs pledged to work together towards improving care at the hospital.Hospital and ambulance bosses have met to examine the problems seen on Monday when ambulances lined up outside the hospital's Accident and Emergency Department because there was no space to treat patients inside.
IPSWICH Hospital was off black alert today as health chiefs pledged to work together towards improving care at the hospital.
Hospital and ambulance bosses have met to examine the problems seen on Monday when ambulances lined up outside the hospital's Accident and Emergency Department because there was no space to treat patients inside.
At one point that afternoon, eight ambulances out of a total of 19 for the whole county were left queuing outside the hospital.
Today the hospital is still on red alert which means there are less than eight beds available at the Heath Road site.
Yesterday Rob Lawrence, the East of England Ambulance Service's chief operating officer for Suffolk, attended a bed site meeting at Ipswich Hospital.
At the meeting Mr Lawrence raised the ambulance service's concerns about the delays in admitting patients to A&E and discussed ways the NHS bodies could work together to stop similar situations occurring again.
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He said: “I have been to the hospital, attended the site bed meeting and had discussions with senior operational staff.
“Yesterday's flow through the hospital was moving and we were using our patient transport fleet to discharge many patients.
“Emergency flow was generally low yesterday.”
Jan Rowsell, Ipswich Hospital's spokeswoman, said that Monday's experience would also be examined within the hospital as part of an ongoing project to improve care.
She said: “Everything that happens within the hospital is very carefully discussed.
“There is a whole range of work that is going on throughout the hospital involving all of our clinicians and nursing staff.
“It looks at how we bring people in and how we manage their care. It is a big project.”
Were you caught up in delays at Ipswich Hospital? Write to Your Letters, Evening Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich IP4 1AN or e-mail eveningstarletters@eveningstar.co.uk.
