July 2011 data

St Mary's Hospital is the major trauma centre for the North West London Trauma network. It also has a dedicated children’s emergency department. It is a type 1 A&E department, with a consultant led 24 hour service with full resuscitation facilities and receives and treats all types of emergencies including those for mental health patients. Since July 2010 there has been an innovative pilot, in partnership with London Central & West Unscheduled Care Collaborative, providing care and treatment for patients with urgent care needs on site.

The Trust has developed an action plan in conjunction with the London Ambulance Service and has already seen an improvement in ‘time to initial assessment’ for patients arriving by ambulance.

The A&E team are also focussing on the ‘time to treatment’ and the number of patients who return to the departments within seven days. The ‘time to treatment’ varies according to the condition of the patient and number of patients arriving at the time in the department. Patients are assessed and prioritised according to their health needs.

Patients who return to our department include a proportion who either have no GP or they are visitors to the area from overseas or other parts of the UK.

The department works with the local social and primary care services to develop management plans for patients who have multiple chronic medical problems that are best managed by more than one organisation.

A&E St Marys patient pathway

A&E time in assessment/treatment graph SMH