Winter resilience campaign launched
Patient transport support to help the NHS with winter pressures.
ERS Medical has launched a ‘winter resilience’ campaign to help the NHS with its winter pressures. The campaign is pushing the importance of booking contingency winter patient transport shifts to support hospitals with patient discharge and alleviate some of the anticipated winter challenges.
In July, Sky News reported that the NHS data for June was worse than any ‘winter crisis’ on record. The article reports that the difficulty in discharging patients is one of the many reasons for this problem.
Whilst this particular campaign comes at a time where reducing the NHS’s winter pressures are at the top of the Government’s agenda, ERS Medical has previously supported such seasonal spikes in patient transport activity.
ERS Medical already works with over 250 NHS organisations providing patient transport and medical courier services. Over the course of the pandemic, ERS Medical also provided mutual aid to Ambulance Trusts.
Andrew Pooley, Chief Executive of ERS Medical, explains more about the campaign, “Given the current statistics and patient discharge data, we anticipate there will be a lot of demand on Non-Emergency Patient Transport Services with increasing patient discharge volumes, driven by the COVID-19 backlog and seasonality. The cost of delayed discharges is between £400-£500 per patient per day – adding up to a significant figure in just a few months.
“We know that there are many reasons patients cannot be discharged from hospital once their treatment is complete. Many patients need a care package to be put in place and some have no safe way to get home without a patient transport ambulance and crew. Deploying frontline or emergency resources to carry out patient transport simply adds to the existing pressure and is not a sustainable solution. This is why we are asking hospitals and Ambulance Trusts to engage with us early and secure winter contingency shifts.”
“Building Non-Emergency Patient Transport resilience and having dedicated winter resources can play a crucial role in timely discharge – freeing up vital hospital beds and helping with the whole system recovery.”
NHS organisations requiring contingency winter shifts can contact ERS Medical via winterresource@ersmedical.co.uk.
