KGH expanding same day emergency care service

KGH is expanding its emergency care service for patients who can be treated and discharged on the same day.

A £300,000 expansion of the Same Day Emergency Care (SDEC) service next to A&E is underway and will almost double the size of the clinic.

The SDEC service is for patients with potentially serious conditions that can be stabilised and treated with rapid specialist intervention without being admitted to a hospital bed.

KGH's clinical director for urgent care, Dr Adrian Ierina, said: "This is about creating a second front door for the hospital in addition to our A&E department.

"We have had a small SDEC for a number of years in our main ward block which was seeing 50 to 60 patients per day before the pandemic.

"It was in urgent need of expansion. Now we are carrying out that expansion and right next to A&E, which means our main emergency care facilities will be based side-by-side.

"This will enable patients to see the right clinician, in the right place, as quickly as possible."

The SDEC was moved out of its location in April to make way for extra intensive care space as part of preparation for coronavirus patients, but this new extension will create a dedicated space for the SDEC.

Dr Ierina, who is also an A&E consultant, said the expansion was important as KGH starts to see a rise in emergency care patients back to pre-Covid levels.

Dr Ierina said: "Since the beginning of August, at the A&E department we have seen an average of 228 patients per day, about the same as we were doing before the Covid-19 pandemic.

"That compares to attendance as as low as 100 patients per day during the peak of Covid-19 in April and May."

The SDEC is due to be completed before the end of October and will be an important addition to KGH before work begins on the Urgent Care Hub.

Dr Ierina said: "Of course our long term plan is to create a multi-million pound Urgent Care Hub on the hospital site and agreement for that has been reached."

The £46m Urgent Care Hub was agreed by the government in October 2019 and the trust is now sorting the final business case to turn it into a reality.

Dr Ierina continued: "However work will not start to build that until the end of 2021 so in the mean time we must look at how best to provide urgent and emergency care, especially considering the on-going threat from coronavirus."

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