Winter Pressures - What is Happening? How can KwickScreen Help?
What Issues are Hospitals Currently Facing?
NHS
This winter is being named the ‘worst on record’ for A&E waits. The NHS is being hit by COVID-19, the flu and strep A, all contributing towards the surge in hospital admissions during this period of immense winter pressures. NHS staff are working tirelessly to treat all patients, however, they are under more pressure than ever before.
To put into perspective just how stretched the NHS currently is, ~38,000 patients waited over 12 hours to be seen in A&E in November 2022. This is over triple the number in November 2021. Doctors have even reported that some patients have had to wait longer than 24 hours to be examined.
According to BBC News, the University Hospitals Dorset NHS Trust’s hospitals in Bournemouth and Poole are “under extreme pressure” with a lack of beds for sick patients. Wards are completely full, pushing healthcare staff to the brink. Interestingly, the main issue here is that many of the hospitals’ beds are taken up by patients who no longer need them, however, discharge is increasingly difficult due to the current demand on social care. If social care schemes don’t have the capacity to support discharged patients who require community care after their treatment, hospital staff are unlikely to discharge them.
On 4th January 2022, the Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, acknowledged the winter pressures crisis that the NHS is currently facing, stating that he was “taking urgent action”. Through increasing NHS funding, the government hopes that the pressure on social care will be alleviated, resulting in an increase in bed capacity for incoming patients. Until then, the NHS are going to have to battle through the crisis with the resources currently open to them.
USA
Sadly, the situation isn’t much better in the US. Emergency departments are experiencing the same influx of patients due to a “trifecta of respiratory illnesses” (COVID-19, RSV and the flu), according to CNN. In fact, some hospitals have opened triages in their car parks to act as overflow spaces for the extra patients. Some of these triages are nothing more than a marquee. Similarly to the UK, staff also report incidents of beds being stationed in the corridors due to a lack of space and people waiting for hours in emergency departments due to a lack of beds. The hospitals are utilising non-patient spaces, such as conference rooms, to provide extra spaces for the surge in patients.
How can KwickScreen help?
The main issue being faced by these hospitals is capacity. The space for patients in the hospitals is limited. Here is where KwickScreen can help. Our portable units, the PRO and DUO, can be stationed and moved anywhere in the hospital to create temporary patient areas, flexible treatment spaces and partitions to divide bed bays for extra capacity.
Here are just some examples of ways our screens can be used to increase capacity during winter pressures (corresponding images below):
DUO units can provide essential privacy and dignity to patients whilst they are stationed in corridors.
PRO units can be used to create more space in emergency departments.
DUOs can create an extra private patient space in a large, open plan room.
AIR units can increase capacity in infusion/dialysis spaces.
Our screens can be used as privacy partitions between extra beds.
Our screens can be used for space partitioning in a waiting room.
Shields help to reduce infection spread in waiting rooms.
Our paediatric prints can reduce anxiety in young patients.
WindowSwitch can be used to provide flexible privacy in hospital spaces where glass is present.
In addition, infection control is improved when using KwickScreens compared to hospital curtains. A study by University College London Hospitals found that there was 8x more bacteria on a curtain than a KwickScreen. This bacteria can lead to an increase in healthcare-associated infections (HCAIs) in patients and staff. HCAIs can put further pressure NHS bed capacity as patient hospital stays can increase by ~9 days. In addition, these infections can lead to staff absences, further exacerbating the current pressure on NHS staff.
If you think KwickScreen can help you weather this tough winter pressures period, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.