A TRANSFORMATION of Barnsley Hospital’s overcrowded accident and emergency department is set to commence immediately in an attempt to curtail hundreds of daily attendances from pushing the service to breaking point.
The overhaul - which was announced due to overwhelming demand which has seen up to 300 daily attendances regularly recorded at the hospital’s A and E - is hoped to reduce the strain on staff and boost patients’ experiences.
A multi-pronged project has been outlined which includes working with regular visitors’ GPs, developing a new clinical assessment service, a re-direction team which will signpost A and E patients to alternative areas and an in-depth review of flow, admission and re-admission rates.
According to a report - set to be discussed by Barnsley Council next week - ambulance-driven patients’ handover times at the hospital currently average almost 22 minutes, exceeding the 15-minute national target.
As well as this, the hospital continues to struggle to hit the four-hour wait time standard for A and E attendees.
NHS England figures show there were 9,293 visits to A and E last month with 7,455 people seen within four hours - accounting for 80 per cent of arrivals.
A total of 229 patients waited longer than four hours.
“Accident and emergency attendances are on the increase, with April 2024 up from April 2023 by ten per cent and May 2024 up from May 2023 by approximately six per cent.
“Year to date - as of August 2024 - attendees to the department are up by 5.4 per cent based on plan.
“It faces significant challenges at the beginning of the week with attendances at 300-plus on a Monday for 49 out of 52 weeks in the year across 2023/24, with similar patterns consistent throughout 2024/25 thus far.
“The average attends for a Monday range between 291 to 343, with a peak of 397 in September 2023.
“Expected outcomes of this project is to reduce the volume of high intensity users across Barnsley, alongside reducing the number of times these individuals access various services.
“Another outcome is for these cohorts of the population to have better connections with local voluntary and community services, better meeting their social needs and wider determinants of health.
“The outcomes of this will be reduced activity in A and E, so there’s more likelihood of the four-hour performance target being met.”
The hospital’s already invested in its workforce within the emergency department, recruiting their own GP workforce to deliver the ‘GP Streaming’ service for primary care-type presentations that ‘walk in’.
Investment has also gone into the paediatric service, expanding the service to operate between 7am and midnight now, rather than a 12-hour service.
A spokesperson from Barnsley Hospital said attendances at the hospital in 2025 remained higher than pre-pandemic levels.
“It takes a whole hospital approach to improve waiting times in A and E.
“Teams throughout the trust, often working hand-in-hand with partner organisations in the community, have been focusing on processes within their specialism which have a direct impact on the flow of patients into, and out of, the hospital.
“We are hugely grateful to the people who have worked hard to make this change possible.
“This latest programme of work is a ‘system-wide’ approach across Barnsley health and care partners.
“It is recognised that a whole system response is the solution to easing pressures at A and E, and obtaining the best health and care outcomes.
“The ambition of this programme of work supports our direction towards achieving national performance standards in urgent and emergency care.
“We welcome and recognise the value of working with health and care partners across the system to improve the health of the Barnsley population.”
