October 2011 data

Hammersmith Hospital’s A&E service is provided by the emergency unit (EU) and the urgent care centre. The hospital also has the Trust 24-hour heart assessment centre (receiving patients by ambulance with high risk cardiac chest pain) and the Trust renal unit, both of which accept acute specialty patients into their own facilities.

Hammersmith Hospital EU is an acute receiving unit for medical emergencies by ambulance as well as patients who walk in with a broad range of conditions. The urgent care centre is run in partnership with London Central & West Unscheduled Care Collaborative and the Central London Community Healthcare NHS Trust. It is open from 08.00 to 22.00 while the EU is open 24 hours a day. 

The Trust has an action plan developed in conjunction with the London Ambulance Service to improve our ‘time to initial assessment’. This action plan has already seen a steady improvement in performance at Hammersmith Hospital between July and October and we are working hard to ensure this improvement is continued over the subsequent months. Hammersmith Hospital also scores well when benchmarked with other London hospitals with data from the ambulance service electronic handover system.

For the month of October there were 4287 emergency attends at Hammersmith Hospital, of these patients, 99 per cent were seen and discharged or admitted within four hours.

The Trust is reviewing our re-attendance data to understand why patients might return to our emergency departments within seven days and we are currently auditing a selection of patients who re-attend with an aim to:

  • Implement shared care plans for patients who attend frequently when another care provider is more appropriate
  • Improve information for patients with certain conditions so they know what to expect
  • Explore options other than emergency department for patients who are not from the local area

For October we are currently validating our data on patients who re-attend to match with those who attend the urgent care centre and will publish with November’s figures.

The hospital has achieved its target for ‘time in department’ and ‘time to treatment’ each month this year and has consistently been one of the best performing units within north west London for seeing, admitting or discharging patients within four hours.

We are continuing to review our current plans in preparation for the winter period when the department is traditionally busier to ensure that we can continue to provide the same standard of service.

As a Trust we are committed to reviewing the pathway for patients requiring admission to ensure patients are transferred safely and quickly to an appropriate bed.

Hammersmith A&E October pathway

Hammersmith A&E October graph

Hammersmith A&E October chart