Tuesday, 27 March 2012

Action plan after hospital death

Trust Medical Director Tony Stevens said a full investigation was under way

"I have no reason to believe a person died alone. What we are looking into is whether a particular patient received the level of care that is required."

Dr Stevens said the quality of care given by doctors and nurses was not a concern, nor was it about a problem with triage - where patients are seen initially for an assessment about the urgency of treatment needed. He said he was satisfied that a safe system was in place.

"We are focused on patients and we are delivering the best care," he said.

"But we came under sustained pressure last week which required our staff to work incredibly hard over a long period of time."

The trust director said it was focusing on getting people through A&E as quickly as possible and encouraging people who could get help from GPs not to come to the hospital.

"The key going forward is to ensure that we minimise the number of people who need to come to hospital," he said.

Director of the Royal College of Nursing NI Janice Smyth said fundamental reform of the health system in Northern Ireland was needed. She said too many people were turning up in hospitals because not enough services were available in the community.

She added that nursing staff's professional judgement was being compromised because of the volume of work they were being expected to get through.

Last November, Belfast City Hospital's Accident and Emergency Unit closed its doors and the Royal became the main hub of emergency care in Belfast.

Mr Compton said the latest action plan was "not to do" with this "temporary closure".

No comments:

Post a Comment