A total of £10 million has been “re-purposed” to provide additional capacity in hospitals and community care provision ahead of winter and beyond, according to the Health Minister.
The Minister provided the information in response to a request from SDLP MLA, Justin McNulty for detail on the steps the Minister’s Department were taking to end care in hospital corridors.
Corridor care, as it has become commonly known, has been an issue affecting all NI hospitals for a number of years.
In January of this year, Acting chief executive of the Southern HSC Trust, Colm McCafferty revealed that a contingency protocol is regularly activated at Daisy Hill Hospital and Craigavon Area Hospital, to deal with exceptionally high volumes of patients… which is exacerbated annually by the winter flu season and the myriad other maladies it brings.
Speaking at the time, Mr McCafferty said: “Unfortunately, [what has now become] almost part of normal service is ‘corridor care’, because ultimately we have to care for patients in whatever space we can find.”
Armagh I also recently revealed that from July 1, 2024 and New Year’s Eve last year, a total of forty-six patients died while waiting in the Emergency Department at Craigavon Area Hospital.
Minister Mike Nesbitt has now said that his Department is “committed to ending the practice of caring for patients in hospital corridors by improving patient flow and increasing capacity across both hospital and community settings”.
To back up this commitment, he added that “to support Trusts in managing unscheduled care pressures, £10 million has been re-purposed to provide additional capacity ahead of winter and beyond”.
Measures being implemented include:
- Expansion of Hospital at Home services, including new provision in some Trusts, enabling patients to receive acute-level care in their own homes and avoid unnecessary hospital admission;
- Additional short-stay inpatient beds and step-down/intermediate care beds to improve discharge pathways and free up acute capacity;
- Enhanced ambulatory and Same Day Emergency Care (SDEC) for acute medicine, frailty, respiratory, and cardiology services, reducing the need for overnight admission;
- Dedicated frailty pathways, including rapid assessment and intervention at the front door, to ensure older and vulnerable patients receive timely, appropriate care and avoid prolonged stays;
- Multidisciplinary team assessment at the front door to direct patients to the most suitable care setting;
Early review teams to recycle community capacity and support timely discharge; and - Investment in community-based services, including intermediate care and rehabilitation, to ensure patients can transition safely from hospital to home and maintain independence.
The Minister added: “These initiatives aim to avoid unnecessary admissions, provide alternative pathways for patients, and ensure timely access to inpatient beds for those who need them.
“Collectively, they will strengthen hospital resilience during periods of peak demand and reduce the need for patients to be cared for in corridors.”
