“Respiratory hubs” like this one in Durham city centre have been central to the North East NHS this winter.
There are 34 of them across the North East and North Cumbria and the idea is to treat people with suspected illnesses like flu or Covid – though that’s played less of a role this year – somewhere other than at accident and emergency departments or their GP. That will, the logic goes, free up space for the most acutely poorly patients, stop the spread of airborne infections and bring down waiting times.
The hub next to University Hospital of North Durham‘s emergency department is operated by the Durham Dales Health Federation and sees GPs and advanced clinical practitioners – like nurses and paramedics – run appointments. You get an appointment at one of these hubs by being referred – either by your GP, by calling NHS 111, or by staff in A&E.
When ChronicleLive visited the Durham city hub, staff said a busy morning had given way to a lunchtime lull – a relieve as they see hundreds of patients each week. Advanced Nurse Practitioner Anna Baines told us how a day earlier – “It felt like we’d seen every patient in England.”
The hubs as a whole across the region saw 35,000 patients in 12 weeks last winter, and are on track to look after similar numbers this year, too.
The project was recently extended for the rest of February by the North East and North Cumbria NHS Integrated Care Board, which provided £1.5m in funding. Across the wider region, the services see around 600 people a day, keeping those people out of A&E or busy doctors’ surgery waiting rooms.
See below for images from ChronicleLive’s trip under the surface of an NHS innovaton that bosses think has been one of the key reasons that our healthcare services have avoided “critical incidents” thus far this winter.
View news Source: https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/health/gallery/behind-scenes-nhs-respiratory-hub-30962800
