Handover summit

 NHS directors and operational leads from across the North East met on January 5th at the North East Ambulance Service, to discuss how to improve hospital handover times in the region.

The 2012/13 winter has been one of the most challenging ever for the NHS in terms of clinical demand, due to a number of factors, including the Norovirus. Paul Liversidge, Director of Operations at NEAS, said: “We are fully aware of the handover delays at some hospitals, and understand why there is public concern.

“Today’s meeting brought everyone under one roof to discuss what changes or improvements to practise we could all make within the NHS to try and alleviate the situation.

“The meeting was extremely constructive and resulted in a number of short and long term plans for all the bodies in attendance which we hope will have an impact.

“NHS services across the North East remain among the best in the country. There is a great joint will among all of the organisations who attended today’s event, and I’m optimistic that we will see some improvement in handover times.”

Dr Relton Cummings, Chairman of the Newcastle North and East Clinical Commissioning Group, said: “Handover delays are a concern to us all. There has been an overall increase in demand at hospitals recently, and we are working hard across the North East to address these concerns.

“It is something we need to solve collectively. It has been a very difficult and demanding winter, and following today’s meeting, I know that everyone else in attendance has the same ambition to make things better.”

For the North East Ambulance Service, part of the solution could be for the ambulance contact centre and front-line paramedics to divert callers/patients to alternative care settings more often (where these settings have been commissioned) and for others to do likewise.

The public can also help by only using 999 when appropriate, for genuine medical emergencies.