Mobile unit in place at RSH to help ease winter pressures

A mobile recovery unit is in place at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital (RSH) to help alleviate the impact that winter pressures are having on the day surgery service.

The unit, supplied by Vanguard Healthcare, is a fully-equipped mobile recovery unit and a walkway has been constructed from it to the entrance of the Treatment Centre.

The capacity offered by the facility will allow The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH), which runs RSH and also the Princess Royal Hospital (PRH) in Telford, to ensure continuity of access to a number of surgical specialities whilst winter pressures continue.

Kath Preece, Head of Nursing for Scheduled Care at SaTH, said: “Ensuring that our patients have full access to the treatment they require has always been a priority for the Trust.

“This mobile unit gives us the ability to plan for patients to receive their day surgery procedures over the winter months. It has proved a big success in the past and we hope the mobile unit will be just as well received this time.

“The unit has been in operation at RSH for a couple of weeks and having taken time to speak with some of the patients using it I have been delighted to hear of positive experiences about the care being provided.

“I would like to thank the day surgery nursing team, our theatre teams and our estates department for enabling this service to function at such short notice.”

Neil Rogers, Interim Assistant Chief Operating Officer for Scheduled Care at SaTH, said: “This is the most pressurised time the year. The past two months have already seen spikes in emergency attendances and a higher volume of patients brought in by ambulance compared to last winter.

“The deployment of this unit is crucial at this time of year, and it is likely to remain in use for the next six weeks.”

The mobile unit offers post-operation recovery space for up to eight day surgery patients at a time.