Minutes:
The Principal Overview and Scrutiny Officer provided the Committee with a presentation of the following press articles which related to the remit of the Adults, Wellbeing and Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee;
· North East A&E waiting times in desperate need of good tonic as flu season takes its toll – Evening Chronicle – 10 February 2018
Every North East hospital trust missed the government’s waiting time target for seeing patients in A&E in January, it had been revealed. The results were consistent with the rest of the UK which had been put under enormous strain over the festive and New Year period after what NHS England described as the “worst flu season in years”. Meanwhile County Durham and Darlington also reported their worst overall A&E performance since monthly figures began in January, with 81.6% of patients waiting less than four hours, down from 85.2% in December.
· Praise for NHS staff from Sunderland and Chester-le-Street who slept on wards during the snow – Northern Ech 1 March 2018
Most people stayed at home on Thursday as The Beast from the East continued to cause havoc throughout the region. But for the emergency services that simply was not an option as they continued to battle through snow and gale-force winds to make it into work. Some even got stuck at work, with NHS staff sleeping in the wards to make sure their patients were kept safe, which caused a flurry of supportive messages from the public.
· Pressure builds on North-East Ambulance Service in snow conditions – Northern Echo 28 February 2018
THE NHS had stated that all of its urgent and emergency care services were continuing to run as normal across the North-East, but were “extremely busy”.
The North East Ambulance Service (NEAS) was also experiencing pressures and was asking people to consider carefully whether they needed to dial 999.
· Patients happy with North East Ambulance Service but waiting times can improve – Northern Echo – 1 March 2018
A report published showed most patients were happy with ambulance services in the region but emergency waiting times could be improved.
Last year, the North East Ambulance Service answered more than a million emergency 999 and NHS111 calls and took patients to hospital from almost 300,000 incidents. It treated and discharged 24,000 patients over the phone and 92,141 at home and scheduled care crews completed 717,315 journeys.
Feedback from more than 6,500 patients, between August 2016 and October 2017, show high satisfaction levels.
· North East hospitals see 40% rise in drug related mental health problems – Evening Chronicle – 17 February 2018
A total of 5,064 patients were admitted to hospital last year after suffering from drug related mental and behavioural disorders. The figures include patients who suffered from these mental health issues but were admitted primarily for another medical reason. The North East bucked the national trend, which saw the total number of patients admitted to hospital because of drug related mental health problems fall by 12% over the last year. County Durham saw the highest number of people saw the highest intake of patients at 777 last year, which was an increase of 38% compared with 2013/14.