The Impact of Covid
During the course of the Covid-19 pandemic, and most notably within the past few months, we have heard horror stories of crowded hospitals with queues of ambulances waiting hours for free beds and patients waiting extended amounts of time to receive urgent treatment. Studies have shown that when capacity rates increase above 92.5%, the death rate in hospitals expands exponentially. This is a problem that we need to tackle now to prevent as many unnecessary future deaths as we can. As a country we must also prepare ourselves for future pandemics and to tackle the huge backlog of patients in our healthcare system currently waiting for much-needed treatments.
The Long-Standing Issue
Although the pandemic has highlighted this issue, it is not a new problem. I’m sure you have heard of, or even experienced first-hand, some form of extreme delay in receiving treatment. The reality is that we have faced increasing levels of overcrowding for years, meaning that we experience thousands of preventable deaths every year due to operational inefficiencies. Many UK hospitals still rely on spreadsheets and whiteboards to manage patient capacity and flow. With teams having little, if any, contact with neighbouring hospitals to share resources and manage patient numbers. By investing in the right systems, medical facilities can keep capacity levels manageable, leave more beds free for those requiring emergency attention and greatly improve patient outcomes. This also lowers staff stress – which is one of the biggest growing pressures facing the NHS today as many of our nurses and doctors are feeling burnt out.
The Solution
I think that extreme overcrowding is one of the most pressing issues that Britain faces today. Our NHS staff have displayed their courage and determination in the face of a global pandemic and we need to invest in them to reduce the pressure and strain. Luckily, patient flow systems such as SmartCrowding are being developed that allow facility managers to effectively track and assign their resources, monitor patient numbers and make better-informed decisions. It is widely known that numerous hospital IT systems are seriously obsolete and do not intercommunicate. If health services can adopt a streamlined and centralised system, then waiting times can be reduced and overcrowding issues can be addressed whilst alleviating some of the pressure points.
These systems are proven to work and investment is needed across the NHS. For example, our founder was experiencing extreme overcrowding in his hospital and was able to reduce waiting times by over 50% in the first year of implementing the system. These results are not an anomaly and we cannot afford to ignore the measurable benefit from comprehensive patient flow systems.
How Will This Make Britain Better?
By harnessing technology and innovation, we can move towards a future where hospitals work as efficaciously as possible, with minimal waiting times, a reduction in capacity-related deaths and improved wellbeing for frontline staff. It is thought that stress represents almost a third of sick leave taken in the NHS, costing the service an estimated £300 – £400 million every year. Not to mention the immeasurable additional cost savings that will come from streamlining operations.
The NHS is world class and also one of our greatest assets as a proud nation. We need to ensure that we do not neglect it and we must put pressure on the Government to invest more for its future. We need to address the biggest issue in our healthcare system now – so that we can continue to cherish it for decades to come.
Ultimately, this just begs the question: Why did we not address this long-standing issue before we found ourselves overwhelmed in a global pandemic?
By Ian Lindsay-Watson, COO at SmartCrowding
Ian is a business professional in the IT software, services & SaaS sectors. He has been in the technology business for 20 years and drives SmartCrowding’s operations in the UK, EMEA and globally to help healthcare facilities address the worldwide issue of overcrowding.
