{"id":285479,"date":"2025-11-27T03:28:16","date_gmt":"2025-11-27T03:28:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/285479\/"},"modified":"2025-11-27T03:28:16","modified_gmt":"2025-11-27T03:28:16","slug":"nhs-winter-pressures-in-north-west-ae-waiting-times-and-corridor-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/285479\/","title":{"rendered":"NHS winter pressures in North West: A&E waiting times and corridor care"},"content":{"rendered":"

‘I spent the day in a hospital – it’s a real head-spinner’published at 18:01 GMT 25 November<\/p>\n

18:01 GMT 25 November<\/p>\n

\"\"Roger Johnson<\/a>
Presenter, BBC North West Tonight<\/p>\n

It\u2019s always confusing to go into someone else\u2019s workplace. <\/p>\n

You don\u2019t know the systems, you can\u2019t understand the acronyms, but my first
\nintroduction to life behind-the-scenes at Whiston Hospital was a real
\nhead-spinner. <\/p>\n

The morning bed meeting sees all departments report their
\nnumbers: how many patients have arrived, how many are staying, how many could
\ngo home. <\/p>\n

If they can\u2019t get a flow through the departments, the whole
\nsystem gets jammed.<\/p>\n

So, as much as medicine, hospitals are about
\nlogistics. Porters moving patients about; cleaners making sure infections
\nare avoided; catering staff delivering meals; pharmacists ordering and
\ndelivering medication.<\/p>\n

The on-site pharmacy has to be seen to be believed.
\nEverything relies on IT. <\/p>\n

From the moment a doctor prescribes medication,
\nit barely touches a human hand, until it gets back to the patient. <\/p>\n

There
\nare 200 staff working here alone, yet all the day\u2019s 1,500 prescriptions are
\npicked by a robot. It works 24 hours-a-day, even re-stocking its own shelves at
\nnight when the humans have gone home.<\/p>\n

Diane Stafford, who is the Deputy Divisional Director of
\nOperations, told me \u201ceverybody who works in this hospital comes to this place
\nbecause it\u2019s where their families come to as well. <\/p>\n

“So you know we want to
\nmake it the best it can be because this is where our family would come to if
\nthey were ill.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"‘I spent the day in a hospital – it’s a real head-spinner’published at 18:01 GMT 25 November 18:01…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":285480,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[102,2960,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-285479","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-healthcare","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=285479"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285479\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/285480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=285479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=285479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=285479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}