A leading North East medic has highlighted how the winter surge in viruses like flu has a huge impact on the health service.
But Dr Catherine Monaghan, medical director at the North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care Board, highlighted that recognising this and “doing things differently” to solve it had helped immensely this winter. She told ChronicleLive: “Essentially every year it is well recognised that we get much more respiratory illness over the winter period and there’s really good data showing this.
“This sees things start to increase in October and November and peak in January and February. The reason for this is very straightforward. These viruses flourish in colder temperatures. So we recognise that this surge in respiratory illness is consequently a really big part of the NHS‘s winter pressures.”
Dr Monaghan was speaking to highlight how respiratory “hubs” throughout the region had helped keep poorly people out of A&E and their GP surgeries. She highlighted how cold weather had a huge impact on our health services.
She added: “The bulk of ‘NHS winter pressure’ is around respiratory illness. For every degree it gets colder, we see increased attendance at A&E, more people going to see the GP and more calls to 111. And if we don’t do anything different, then we are going to see huge pressure in A&E and urgent care centres.”
This comes towards the end of a winter whereby flu has caused huge pressure on the NHS. Eight per cent of available NHS general and acute adult hospital beds in the North East and North Cumbria were occupied by flu patients at one stage this winter, according to a report released last week.
Dr Monaghan said that respiratory hubs – there are 34 across the North East and North Cumbria, 29 in just the North East – had made a real difference and helped support winter NHS services in three ways. The hubs were given an additional £1.5m in funding to remain open until the end of February, the ICB announced last week
The leading medic said: “The idea behind respiratory hubs in three-fold. One, it’s to provide extra capacity. Last winter we saw 35,000 people across a 12-week period. That’s patients getting the same-day care that they need. They’ll be seen and assessed by an appropriate healthcare professional who can make a diagnosis and then get them appropriate treatment.
“The second driver is around how busy and under-pressured A&E departments are over the winter period. Providing these extra appointments means patients can be treated and back at home freeing up A&E staff to look after the most acutely unwell patients.
“And the third part of this is that we know that respiratory illnesses spread very, very easily. The last thing we want is patients with respiratory symptoms sharing these viruses with other patients in GP waiting rooms or hospital A&E departments. So by doing this we stream them off.”
Generally, a patient is referred to a hub by their GP or by the NHS 111 service. They can’t self-refer. When they are referred they will get an appointment with a GP or advanced nurse practitioner, usually. These staff will be providing extra appointments – supplementing those usually offered at GPs.
Patients can only attend respiratory hubs if they are referred – either by the NHS 111 telephone service, by the team at their GP surgery or when in A&E.
Join our Breaking News and Top Stories WhatsApp community
Join our Breaking News and Top Stories WhatsApp community for all the latest news direct to your phone.
To join you need to have WhatsApp on your device. All you need to do is choose which community you want to join, click on the link and press ‘join community’.
No one will be able to see who is signed up and no one can send messages except the ChronicleLive team.
We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners.
If you don’t like our community, you can check out any time you like. To leave our community click on the name at the top of your screen and choose ‘exit group’.
If you’re curious, you can read our privacy notice.
View news Source: https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/health/north-east-medic-backs-hubs-30942549
