Date published: 16 January 2024
Mersey Care has built a robust winter/resilience plan which went into delivery mode during October 2023, to keep patients well in the community and take pressure off the wider system. Despite the Christmas and New Year period being challenging, there was very little disruption to patients and overall, it was an incredibly positive outcome under such difficult conditions.
Mersey Care intends to save more than 45,000 bed days through the successful delivery of their winter resilience plan and are on track to increase their system impact by up to 15% compared to last year.
Some highlights from the Christmas and New Year period for physical health include:
- Over 9,000 patients attended urgent treatment and walk-in centres, with less than 3% transferred onto Emergency Departments
- There was a further rise in patients accessing virtual wards, with a 77% occupancy
- ICRAS (Integrated Community Reablement and Assessment Service) helped to discharge over 200 patients from hospitals to improve patient flow
For mental health:
- A telephone line was established for professionals, which is directing patients to a place of safety rather than Emergency Departments
- Mental Health Crisis Lines are receiving on average 1,300 calls a week
- The triage car continued to be used to great effect over the festive period, undertaking over 50 assessments a week.
See infographic for more details.
