A councillor says hard work has taken place to ensure the number of people in hospital waiting for social care across Staffordshire remains low.
Cllr Julia Jessel, cabinet member for health and care at Staffordshire County Council, made her comments in a report to a meeting next week.
In her health and care winter update, the councillor said additional services had been commissioned to “facilitate timely hospital discharges”.
She added:
“The NHS nationally has been under extraordinary pressure this winter.
“There have been high levels of demand due to large numbers of people unwell with respiratory virus infections, compounded by staff shortages due to vacancies and sickness absence.
“Urgent care activity has been particularly high with large numbers of emergency hospital admissions and widespread reports of ambulances queueing outside emergency departments.
“There remains a substantial opportunity to reduce emergency hospital admissions by improving management of elderly and frail people in the community, especially at end of life.
“It is also important to ensure timely hospital discharges – Staffordshire has fully integrated hospital discharge services. This means that very few Staffordshire residents now wait in acute hospitals for social care.”
Cllr Julia Jessel, Staffordshire County Council
Cllr Jessel added that the council was working to develop additional extra care and nursing home capacity, as well as supporting efforts to recruit and retain staff.
The report will be heard at a meeting of Staffordshire County Council’s cabinet on Wednesday (18th January).
