STAFFING at Princess Alexandra Hospital's accident and emergency department is to receive a boost with the injection of £91,500 over the next two years.

The money is part of a £100m investment by the Department of Health into accident and emergency departments in an effort to reduce waiting times.

The cash will pay for at least two additional nursing posts to ensure that the Hamstel Road hospital meets the NHS Plan target that no patient should spend more than four hours waiting in accident and emergency from arrival to admission, transfer or departure.

The milestones for this target are for 75 per cent of patients to be treated with four hours by March 31 next year and 90 per cent by March 31, 2003.

Trust chief executive Gary Belfield said: "The money will allow us to employ further emergency nurse practitioners and build on the work on developing our accident and emergency services to meet existing and future demands."

He said discussions were taking place with the regional health chiefs about the possibility of the hospital which achieved a three-star rating in a recent government grading table of being one of the proposed pilots for an £18m national NHS Clinical Assessment System.

Mr Belfield said it would enable the hospital to be "at the leading edge of the work to further improve the patient experience in accident and emergency departments".

Harlow MP Bill Rammell said: "This new money shows the government is investing in key services in the NHS and Harlow is benefiting from this new money. The government is not complacent and we know there is a lot more to do before the NHS reaches the standards that all patients in Harlow deserve, but the money is coming through and it will make a difference in future years."

The hospital is also receiving over £1.2m from the New Opportunities Fund, which distributes money on behalf of the National Lottery fund, to pay for new heart equipment,

The trust will also get £131,000 for new facilities and initiatives for heart patients, including two fully-equipped beds in the coronary care unit dedicated to providing 'fast track' treatment to stabilise patients brought to the hospital following a suspected heart attack, and a new specialist mobile blood testing kit for the accident and emergench department for 'on the spot' analysis of blood samples.

Mr Belfield said: "Gaining the new money is good news for our fast developing service to heart patients."

The money will provide angiography equipment which enables doctors to make accurate measurements on the level each patients' arteries are blocked.

Mr Belfield said: "Together with the appointment of a cardiac rehabilitation coordinator, a chest pain clinic near accident and emergency and additional beds in the coronary care unit, we are developing a full range of locally-based services for people with heart disease."

December 4, 2001 11:26