Tuesday 12th January 2016 4:02pm
Toby Lewis, Chief Executive, said:“Throughout today we have managed the increased numbers of patients admitted to Sandwell Hospital in recent days. The number we have been able to safely discharge has increased so that services are safe for tonight and tomorrow. We have agreed with the LNC Chair to stand down the request to some trainee doctors at Sandwell Hospital to come in and provide additional assistance. We will keep this situation under review.
“The Trust is not party to the national dispute in any way. The decisions made were made locally, and based on judgements about current and foreseeable pressure – a recognised basis for incident management. It would be irresponsible to wait for a position that was not recoverable and then act.
“I want to thank those people who did come in to work on the Sandwell wards today. There has never been any doubt here that in circumstances of difficulty individuals would prioritise patients.”
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Tuesday 12th January 2016 1:45pm
Toby Lewis, Chief Executive noted that: “The Sandwell site remains under considerable pressure with 15% additional beds open after a week of very considerable demand from sick patients needing our care. The trainee doctors that attended exceptionally, and those pre-agreed to be there, have helped greatly today, along with consultant colleagues, to de-escalate the site.
“We are optimistic that towards the end of this afternoon we will have achieved our discharge aims. That will provide a safe hospital overnight and tomorrow and we can stand down our site recall.
“It is important to be clear that today has not been a major incident, but has been one of considerable and unusual pressure and we have acted, on clinical advice, to ensure that the position does not deteriorate, become potentially unsafe and destabilising neighbouring hospitals and GP services.”
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Tuesday 12th January 2016 10:00am
Dr Roger Stedman, Medical Director at Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust, said: “Over the last two days we have had very high numbers of patients come to hospital, and fewer than usual discharged.
‘Because of that we decided to require trainee doctors allocated to ward work to attend Sandwell during today’s strike. Staff taking action at City are unaffected. We would like to thank local doctors’ representatives for their constructive support and advice.’
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Monday 11th January 2016
Dr Roger Stedman, Medical Director at Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust, said: “We have worked closely with our senior medical staff to ensure that there is appropriate cover for the clinical work that is to be undertaken. Our priority is to maintain safe care for our patients.
“Our plans aim to minimise disruption to our patients as much as possible, although to ensure safe care we have cancelled five surgical procedures and 126 outpatient appointments which had been scheduled for the day of the industrial action. However in the event that the action is called off at short notice we have asked our patients to attend their appointment if possible.”
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