Flu is taking a major toll on hundreds of people in the district, putting huge emergency pressures on health services. Health reporter Mike Waites looks at the most detailed preparations ever made in Bradford by health chiefs to prevent a winter beds crisis.

THE SPECTRE of patients being turned away from hospitals because of a shortage of beds has long haunted health chiefs across the country.

An unexplained but steady increase in emergency cases in recent years has put ever greater pressure on health services to deliver, prompting Government ministers to loosen purse strings to finance extra care.

Now health chiefs in Bradford have drawn up the most wide-reaching plans ever to cope with winter pressures. More than £1.5million in specific initiatives will be spent in coming months.

The plans cover a huge range of services.

A key element targets admissions to hospital of mainly elderly patients, often with flu-like infections which lead to medical complications.

New beds have been opened while special discharge procedures have been put in place to make sure sick or injured people well enough to leave hospital but still in need of extra care can get help in recuperative half-way-house accommodation or from adaptations made at home. And rapid response teams have been created to cope with people in need at home.

The host of initiatives cover not only emergency services but extra resources for mental health, specialist child nurses and even improved community dental services to prevent hospital admission.

Bradford Health Authority's assistant director of planning, Andrew Kenworthy, said he was confident health services would cope over the winter.

The plans brought together all groups involved in health care including family doctors, hospitals, social services and ambulance services and work would be implemented alongside existing targets to reduce waiting lists.

"Our commitment is to make sure everybody admitted in the Bradford district gets the highest quality of care available," he said.

The enormous pressure on services which can be created by winter problems has been reflected over recent days with an outbreak of flu. It led to nearly double the number of admissions at Bradford Royal Infirmary - many patients with chest infections.

Hard-pressed casualty staff have meanwhile dealt with numbers a third higher than expected.

Among measures put in place in Bradford hospitals are an extra 26 beds for emergency admissions, extra nursing and medical staff, improved communication with ambulance crews to speed up transfers and discharges, and the setting up of a seven-day service from social services.

Director of patient care Rose Stephens said experiences of last year, when a sickness and diarrhoea bug severely hit patients and staff, had been used to develop new ideas while expertise from other hospitals had also been drawn upon.

"While it is impossible to predict the rise in the number of admissions we are likely to face this winter, the extensive planning in partnership with other health agencies and social services will put us in good stead for the winter."

Doug Farrow, director of planning and marketing at Airedale NHS Trust, said the plans put in place were dealing successfully with pressures so far. An extra 20 beds had been created on a new medical ward while a range of other services had been working well for several weeks.

"Our arrangements that were put into place are working and working well although they have certainly been tested," he said.

Service is hit by 4,000 calls in just four days

St John Ambulance staff have been called up to help ambulance crews cope with an unprecedented number of calls caused by the flu outbreak

The Birkenshaw-based West Yorkshire Metropolitan Ambulance Service received more than 4,000 calls for help in the four days from Christmas Day.

More than a thousand were received on Christmas Day alone, compared to an average of 500 a day, and the trend is expected to continue into the New Year.

Five St John Ambulance crews were drafted in to deal with non-emergency transfers in West Yorkshire including Bradford at the weekend while WYMAS crews and managers on rest days between shifts were also called in to help.

The huge demand on top of everyday calls for illness and injury has been exacerbated by an outbreak of flu which has hit the North and Midlands.

Janet Walter, the director of patient services for WYMAS, praised accident and emergency crews: "Staff working for the ambulance service are often faced with difficult and trying circumstances but over the last few days they have been faced with unprecedented demands for help.

"Despite this huge demand they have shown tremendous skill and true professionalism."

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.