This weekend has seen me as the Operational commander for the local East Dorset sector.
Our patch is fairly unique within SWAST as it has two acute hospitals within one sector at either end of the Bournemouth , Poole conurbation.
This can prove challenging especially when both hospitals are struggling to off load ambulances. Yesterday saw handover delays at both hospitals, luckily we had additional operational officer cover yesterday which allowed us to have an ops officer at each hospital to liaise with the hospital staff and manage delays.
This was in addition to the team providing incident command support at a evacuation of a local swimming pool and leisure complex and at a complex trauma incident.
For those of you who hate the thought of Christmas look away now apparently its about 90 odd days away and counting, Christmas goods are in the shops! From an ambulance service and NHS wide perspective this means finalising plans to deal with anticipated winter pressures. This include plans to deal with increased numbers of 999 and 111 calls, handover delays at hospitals , disruption to services due to severe weather, planning for large gatherings on New years Eve, alongside our business as usual functions. This is part of the role of our Emergency Preparedness, Resilience and Response team who work closely with local managers, other agencies and NHS trusts to ensure we have robust pans in place to cope with expected pressures. The acute hospitals will also be forming their plans and they will look at expediting discharges, creating extra bed capacity and additional staffing at key times.to ensure that they maintain bed capacity in the hospitals. Jointly and nationally there are many initiatives in place for admission avoidance. As you can see a lot of work goes on behind the scenes to make sure that patients receive the care that they need at the right time in the appropriate setting.
That's it from me for this week off for two days of training next week before covering the weekend.
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