Emergency admissions increase at Bournemouth and Poole hospitals

NHS England figures released show how emergency attendances at University Hospital Dorset (UHD) hospitals increased by more than 1,000 people from September to October – many of whom endured lengthy waits.

In total, 13,676 people attended A&E at Bournemouth or Poole throughout October – 954 more than the previous month.

Read more: How Dorset's NHS is preparing for a tough winter with 'data-driven war room'

Of the 13,676, a total of 5,544 were actually admitted to the hospitals as an emergency. The data also shows how 1,392 of these patients spent more than four hours waiting to be admitted from the decision to do so by a triage nurse.

282 people, meanwhile, had to wait for 12 hours or more to be admitted. This total was at 95 in August and 113 in September before the large leap in October.

Inside Poole Hospital

Across England, A&E departments received 2.2 million visits last month. That was an increase of 9 per cent compared to September, and similar to the amount seen in October 2021. Almost 600,000 of these faced waits of more than four hours.

The NHS says it expects these pressures to heighten during the peak winter months.

UHD has asked people to only visit the emergency departments for serious or life-threatening injuries or illnesses so staff can focus on the most urgent cases.

Some patients left waiting do so in the back of ambulances outside the emergency departments in Bournemouth and Poole.

Read more: 'We should use Nightingale units to ease bed blocking in NHS'

Ambulances outside Royal Bournemouth Hospital (Image: Reader)

In October, the Echo reported on long delays suffered by ambulance services waiting outside A&E - with one first responder unit from Wimborne reporting a five hour wait which they said was a “daily occurrence”.

A spokesperson for the South Western Ambulance Service said at the time: “The whole health and social care system has been under sustained pressure for many months now.

“Our performance has not returned to pre-pandemic levels, partly due to handover delays at emergency departments.”

NHS bosses in Dorset have said more beds have been opened up in preparation for winter with patient flow the main priority. 

But issues elsewhere in the system - for instance with moving people who are ready out of hospital - do result in delays further down the line, they said.

A system control centre, managing data across the health service in Dorset, has been set-up in a bid to manage the pressures.