Hospital admissions and waiting times (FOI)

​Request

A

Delayed Discharge: Please provide the number of patients who experienced delayed discharge over the past 12 months, along with the average duration of these delays with reasoning for the delays.

B

Number of Patient Admissions Longer than 21 Days: Please provide the number of patient admissions that exceeded 21 days over the past 12 months. 

C

Reasons for Patient Admissions Longer than 21 Days: Please explain the reasons for patient admissions lasting more than 21 days and any delays in discharge. Please break this down by hospital ward.

D

A&E Wait Times: Please provide the average wait times for patients in the Accident & Emergency department over the past 12 months.

E

Ambulance Handover Times: Please provide the average handover times from ambulance services to A&E staff over the past 12 months.

F

Current wait lists for planned surgery or treatment. 

G

Missed appointments: Please provide number of missed amounts and reasons for this, including lack of patient transport options. 

H

Non-regulated Discharge Support: Please provide the number of current statutory funded contracts for non-regulated discharge support, including the contract value, what entity holds the contract, and what specific support is provided.

I

Patient Transport: Please provide the number of current statutory funded contracts for patient transport, including the contract value, what entity holds the contract, and what specific support is provided.

J

Support at Home Services: Please provide the number of current statutory funded contracts for support at home services (support lasting between 4-12 weeks aimed at increasing resilience and independence following hospital admission, illness, or other crisis), including the contract value, what entity holds the contract, and what specific support is provided.

Response

A

Information relating to delayed discharges for the period through until October 2023 is available in a previous Freedom of Information response, published to www.gov.je in December 2023:

Numbers of delayed transfer of care since January 2021 (FOI)

As this information is available elsewhere, Article 23 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has been applied.

505 patients experienced a period of delayed discharge during their hospital admission at Jersey General Hospital, Overdale or Samares at St Ewold’s (Rehabilitation Unit), between 1 October 2023 to 31 August 2024.

The average number of days of delayed discharge for these 505 patients was 16.6 days. This does not imply conscutive days.  Any days of delayed discharge outside of this timeframe from October 2023 to August 2024 are not included. 

Table 1 details the reasons recorded for delays in discharge for the period 1 October 2023 to 31 August 2024.  An individual could have multiple reasons recorded for their delayed discharge, and experience more than one period of delay within the same admission. Consequently, the reason for delayed discharge is presented as the total number of bed days recorded against each reason. 

Table 1 - Reason for Delayed Discharge.pdf

B

Table 2 details the number of patients discharged from Jersey General Hospital, Overdale or Samares at St Ewold’s in each of the last 12 months, from September 2023 to August 2024, with an admission duration (length of stay) greater than 21 days.

Table 2 - LOS Exceeding 21 Days.pdf

Length of stay is measured at discharge. As such, figures detailed in Table 2 do not include current inpatients.

C

No central record is held on the reasons for admissions exceeding 21 days. Therefore, Article 3 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 applies.

D

Table 3 below details the average total stay each month, from September 2023 to August 2024, for attendees at Health and Community Services’ (HCS) Emergency Department.  This information was previously reported in the HCS Quality and Performance Reports, available at the link below:

Health and Community Services Quality and Performance Reports (gov.je)

Table 3 - Average Total ED Stay.pdf

E

Table 4 shows the average handover time each month of the last 12 months, from September 2023 to August 2024, between the States of Jersey Ambulance Service and HCS’ Emergency Department staff for Emergency calls only.  Handover time is measured as the time between an ambulance arriving at the Emergency Department and the time the ambulance is cleared. 

Table 4 - Ambulance Handover Times.pdf​

F

Current waitlists for planned surgery or treatment are available on www.gov.je, and include information on the number of people waiting and the current median waiting times:

​Hospital waiting lists (gov.je)

As this information is available elsewhere, Article 23 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has been applied.

G

Monthly figures for the number of adult Outpatients who ‘Did Not Attend’ (DNA), along with the ‘Was Not Brought’ (WNB) rate, are published in the HCS Quality and Performance Reports, available at the link below:

Health and Community Services Quality and Performance Reports (gov.je)​

As this information is available elsewhere, Article 23 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has been applied.

Whilst the reason that an individual did not attend or was not brought may be documented in their patient case notes, no central record is held to report this data from. Therefore, Article 3 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 applies.

H to J

There is no statutory requirement for such services in Jersey. Jersey is a self-governing jurisdiction with health services which are independent of the NHS.  As such, U.K. statutory or mandatory agreements and procedures in respect of health services do not apply.

The Patient Transport Service is provided through the States of Jersey Ambulance Service. 

Articles Applied

Article 3 - Meaning of “information held by a public authority”

For the purposes of this Law, information is held by a public authority if –

(a)     it is held by the authority, otherwise than on behalf of another person; or

(b)     it is held by another person on behalf of the authority.

Article 23 - Information accessible to applicant by other means

(1) Information is absolutely exempt information if it is reasonably available to the applicant, otherwise than under this Law, whether or not free of charge.

(2) A scheduled public authority that refuses an application for information on this ground must make reasonable efforts to inform the applicant where the applicant may obtain the information.​