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The number of patients waiting for over 12 hours in the the Emergency Department has increased, according to a report presented to the Health Advisory Board yesterday.
In April, around 4% of all Emergency Department patients – 131 out of 3,554 attendances – had to wait over 12 hours before being admitted or discharged.
Only 74.6% of patients seen within the four-hour target timeframe in April – down from 77% in March, despite attendance numbers being similar.
Pictured: The percentage of patients waiting in the Emergency Department for more than 12 hours has been increasing since the start of 2024.
Health officials say they are working to improve patient flow by expanding bed capacity, reducing the length of stays, and streamlining admissions to "enable quicker movement" through the Emergency Department .
The report said the primary cause of lengthy waits is difficulty moving patients out of the Emergency Department and into appropriate inpatient beds.
It explained: "The main reasons for the delays were a lack of available inpatient beds due to isolation requirements for infection control and a shortage of gender-specific rooms."
This is because some patients require isolation to prevent the spreading of contagious illnesses like influenza.
However, with limited capacity, new patients needing isolation cannot leave the Emergency Department until a room opens on the wards.
Additionally, shortages of male-only and female-only rooms mean some patients cannot be admitted due to a lack of gender-separated beds.
This means patients get gridlocked in the Emergency Department, which prevents new patients from being seen and treated quickly and creates further overcrowding.
Pictured: The Ambulance Service reached capacity on Tuesday with all staff attending calls or waiting to handover at the Emergency Department.
The delays are also impacting ambulance operations.
Earlier this week, the Ambulance Service hit maximum capacity with all crews either responding to calls or waiting to offload patients at the backed-up Emergency Department.
This left the island with no available ambulance crew for two hours on Tuesday night.
Following the incident, the States of Jersey Ambulance service said it was "working with partners in HCS to help improve ambulance turnaround times at the Emergency Department."
The report discussed at the Health and Community Services Advisory Board meeting can be read in full HERE.
No available ambulance crew for two hours following "surge in demand"
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