August 10, 2018 4.25 pm This story is over 67 months old

£900k to help Scunthorpe A&E pressures

The A&E streaming service is in need of an overhaul

Scunthorpe General Hospital. Picture: Colin Babb.

£900,000 is being spent by the trust which runs Scunthorpe General Hospital in an effort to improve health facilities and ease pressure on its A&E department.

Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Trust (NLaG) is looking to improve its urgent care streaming service which diverts patients away from accident and emergency.

Under the service, patients are assessed when attending the department and directed to the most suitable care and treatment.

This means that those with minor illnesses would be diverted to a GP or nurse in the department.

Now, NLaG has submitted further plans to North Lincolnshire Council to build a two storey building between the hospital’s A&E and X-Ray facility building for the streaming service.

Visuals of the building proposed by NLaG to increase capacity for the streaming service.

The trust is looking to add extra space in order to cope with the demand at the emergency department which it said will “improve the environment” at the hospital.

A spokesperson for NLaG said: “The investment will deliver additional capacity on the Scunthorpe site within which care can be delivered.

“Scunthorpe hospital has a streaming service in operation now, this investment improves the environment it is delivered within. We anticipate the additional space will be open by February 2019.

“Like hospitals across the country we have seen an increase in demand for urgent and emergency care. This investment helps us to deliver care in an environment suitable for the person’s needs.”

It comes as United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust invested £500,000 into setting up streaming care in Lincoln.

Plans were proposed for Boston Pilgrim which runs a similar service in an effort to reduce waiting times at A&E.

However, the health trusts which have operated the service in both Boston and Lincoln from October 2017 missed their streaming targets for the first six months of the scheme.

In summer 2017 ULHT received nearly £1 million funding to relieve pressure on hospital emergency departments in Lincoln and Boston, while NLaG secured £900,000 from NHS England.

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