Hospital bosses could double Leighton’s A&E capacity for patients with the most serious injuries in order to meet growing demand, writes Stephen Topping.
Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust wants to increase the number of majors cubicles at A&E from 10 to 18, 19 or 20.
Members of the trust are now looking for both the political and financial support they need to turn the vision into a reality.
Tracy Bullock, (pictured) chief executive at the trust, said: “The A&E unit at Leighton Hospital does not have enough majors cubicles to meet current demand and the volume of patients attending the emergency department.
“There are currently 10 majors cubicles at the hospital and, for the number of patients we now see, we need an additional eight to 10. However, this requires capital investment for which the trust would require national support.
“A business case is in development to enable a bid to be put forward should a national pot of capital money become available.”
Leighton Hospital had 73,985 A&E admissions from March last year to February, compared to 68,053 a year earlier.
The trust announced that Leighton Hospital was dealing with the highest number of emergency admissions in its history in January.
Figures released earlier this month showed that patients were left waiting to be seen for more than four hours at Leighton’s A&E on 4,931 occasions in December, January and February, as the NHS dealt with increased winter demand.
“Despite current demand, staff across the trust continue to work hard to ensure patient safety and that services run as smoothly as possible,” Mrs Bullock added.
Once a business case is developed, the trust will put forward a bid for funding through the Health and Care Partnership for Cheshire and Merseyside.
Mrs Bullock and trust chairman Dennis Dunn MBE recently spoke to Antoinette Sandbach, Conservative MP for Eddisbury, about the expansion proposal as the trust looks to gain cross-party support.
Maybe as a planning clause all driveways empty between certain hours can offer free parking to hospital drop offs.
Don’t mind my drive space being used when I am at work.
Leaving the exsisting spaces open just for the elderly, infirm and disabled
Unbelievable the brand new tarmac outside Aldi in Nantwich which has only been down for 3 weeks has been ripped up ! & relayed along with all the white lines .
Typical Workmanship of today ,who is paying for yet another of Cheshire easts mistakes ! & who was in charge on the night when the new surface was put down .Sureley someone should have spotted this on the night .
All the extra weekend wages paid out from Sunday & night time rates of pay from the first set of roadworks ,wasted diesel on all the machinery / white lines what a joke ,Never mind it’s easy spending someone else’s money .i don’t suppose anyone will be fired from such a shoddy job.
Let’s see what happens on the other roadworks that are planned for Millstone Lane etc
Far better idea, not just for Leighton but all NHS hospitals, would be to open up at least 30 beds & have the assessment units working as that & not as a ward. No point increasing capacity in ED if the patients have nowhere to go.
And what are they going to do about parking? The situation now is almost impossible. In the past they have said that people should use public transport – their clients are sick people! Do they expect you to take a one hour bus ride instead of a 10 minute car journey?
Nothing they can do. All of the land surrounding the hospital is earmarked for housing and therefore too expensive for the hospital to buy.