Staffordshire NHS bosses quizzed over winter plan which includes 45,000 extra GP appointments

NHS bosses hope a vaccination drive, communications campaign and 45,000 extra GP appointments will help keep people out of hospital this winter.

The cluster winter plan for the NHS in Staffordshire and Shropshire includes a raft of measures aimed at maximising hospital capacity and reducing attendances over the next few months.

Officials from Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Integrated Care Board gave county councillors a presentation on the planned actions.

These include additional winter illness clinics and a communications campaign designed to direct people to the most appropriate services.

And the local vaccination campaign is already meeting with success, with uptake of flu, RSV and Covid jabs above the national average.

But members of the health and care scrutiny committee raised concerns that services were already stretched heading into winter, with ambulance handover delays still a major problem.

Gareth Wright, director of system improvement, co-ordination and emergency preparedness, acknowledged that the ambulance handover situation is ‘not where we would want it’.

But he told the committee that much of the winter plan would be focused on reducing the number of people needing to come to hospital in the first place.

He said: “The ICB is funding 45,000 additional appointments in general practice this winter. They are to be focused on winter illness clinics, and they will be spread out by head of population.

“In general we’re looking to improve the volume and appropriateness of access to primary care resources. We’re looking to avoid patients going to our hospitals if they don’t need to do it. In so doing we will look to reduce pressure on urgent and emergency care.”

Mr Wright said a key focus of the vaccination drive would be the over-65s, who account for around half of hospital admissions over winter and 70 per cent of bed days.

Councillor Tracey Dougherty raised concerns over how elderly people are treated when they do need to go to hospital, giving the example of her own 88-year-old grandmother, who had to wait 14 hours to be admitted, including nine hours in the back of an ambulance.

Cllr Dougherty said the experience had been ‘absolutely appalling.

She added: “I worked as a carer for seven years and took around 50 patients to hospital. They have their initial assessment and treatment, but after that they’re forgotten about for hours on end. It is diabolical. We shouldn’t be treating our elderly people like that.”

Mr Wright said he was ‘really sorry’ that Cllr Dougherty’s grandmother had had such a poor experience, but said he could not guarantee that similarly long waits would not happen in future.

The committee was also told how the cluster would be spending £75,000 on communications, based on a successful campaign in Shropshire last year, aiming to ensure patients get the ‘right help, right time, first time’.

This campaign will include social media activity as well as posters and leaflets informing the public of appropriate alternatives to attending A&E.

Councillor Wayne Luca raised concerns that the campaign could result in ‘communications overload’, discouraging people from accessing the help they need.

Chief of staff Mish Irvine acknowledged the potential for confusing people, but said the approach had resulted in benefits last year.

She said: “We are hoping that we’re going to get it just right, in terms of having a consistent campaign. It’s quite bright, it’s visual, and there are different methodologies for different people to access it. We’re also working collectively with partners to ensure people aren’t being told different things.”

The committee recommended that the ICB look at extending the communications campaign to the NHS app and to encourage people to pass information on to friends, family and neighbours who might not be online.