Issue - meetings

          The Board received a report from the Halton Place Director, which provided an update on the Urgent Care Improvement Programme and its current performance against national standards, which resulted in the continued focus of resources and efforts to drive forward improvements.

          Over the past year, both Warrington and Halton Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, had faced challenges on their emergency care performance, which had led to their classification as Tier 1 status.  To address these issues, both Trusts had received additional support from the National Emergency Care Improvement Support Team (ECIST) alongside assistance from other external agencies.

Key sentinel metrics, supplemented by a wide range of indicators, were used to monitor performance and reported daily. Although standards had been achieved, results remained inconsistent. As a result, the improvement programmes were important to improve performance and deliver positive benefits for patient outcomes. 

It was noted that the current Accident and Emergency (A&E) 4-hour performance, remained below the national standard, which indicated a continued pressure on emergency departments.  In response, Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust was progressing several key actions to improve patient flow and overall performance within A&E and these were outlined in section 3.5 of the report.  Warrington and Halton Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust operated a smaller bed base, and many of its challenges resulted from consistently high bed occupancy levels, which averaged 101% on most days. In response, Warrington had implemented a substantial improvement programme within A&E, with full details provided in section 3.7 of the report.

The report explained that the wider system work programme was taking  forward actions to help hospital trusts. These focussed on reducing unnecessary A&E visits and making sure patients could leave hospital promptly once they were medically ready.

Following discussions and questions raised by Members of the Board, some additional information was noted:

·       Some Board Members shared personal encounters of A&E and suggested that the statistics provided in the report did not truly reflect lived experiences.  They also suggested that clearer communication was needed to help prevent unnecessary attendances at A&E and encourage use of alternative services such as Urgent Treatment Centres (UTC);

·       Board Members were reassured that, through Healthwatch, hospitals were actively seeking patient feedback across a range of services. They were also assured that Halton had performed well in reducing unnecessary hospital attendances and supporting people to remain well in the community, whilst recognising that further progress was still required to meet national standards.  It was further noted that, with Healthwatch’s support, Warrington Hospital had introduced live A&E waiting times on its website, along with waiting times for the UTC in Runcorn. This enabled patients to make informed choices about the most appropriate service to access. However, similar information was not yet available for Whiston Hospital;

·       The “Blackburn Come Back Model” was introduced in October 2025, which aimed to reduce the number of patients waiting all night in A&E by offering them  ...  view the full minutes text for item 24