Inside the Future Hospital waiting room: dignity in care

Tuesday 11 December 2018

A definite plan to build a new hospital in Jersey is still yet to be finally agreed, leaving health workers having to function with facilities that are no longer “fit for purpose."

Capacity management, infection control and the quality of patient care are just some of the challenges faced by hospital staff.

Today Express continues the series ‘Inside the Future Hospital waiting room’ with the Group Managing Director of Health and Community Services, Robert Sainsbury.

Pictured: Group Managing Director of Health and Community Services, Robert Sainsbury, spoke to Express about his concerns regarding the length of time taken to deliver a new Hospital.

Mr Sainsbury has  already explained his concerns about how the lack of isolation facilities in the current Hospital increases the risk of diseases spreading.

Tied in with this issue, the Group Managing Director said that the general lack of space in the current Hospital also has ramifications for the quality of care that can be provided to patients at the end of their lives.

For Mr Sainsbury, the extra cubicles and side rooms which were proposed as part of the new hospital are crucial for infection control, but also to ensure that those who are receiving palliative care can be alone with their families in a peaceful environment.

Pictured: The report that blew open the Future Hospital debate again after raising serious concerns about the decision-making process on the project.

“The other complication that we have because of the lack of… isolation rooms relates to dignity in care. Obviously, we have, at times, very ill patients within the hospital and we do provide end of life care… when you’re caring for those individuals, you do want to manage and care for them and nurse them in an environment that’s private.”

Ideally, Mr Sainsbury said, these patients would be places in “side rooms” or “single rooms” to allow for privacy so that “they’re not in the middle of an environment where they’ve got four or five other patients around them and people walking back and forth [or] lots of noise.”

“…We really have difficulty in accommodating that at times because we have such a pressure on the cubicles for infection control and that has to take precedence. It means that at times we just can’t use those rooms to provide that kind of dignity in care and that obviously presents a major issue in terms of patient experience and relative experience,” Mr Sainsbury continued.

Pictured: Providing privacy whilst caring for elderly or terminally ill patients at the end of their lives is challenging given the facilities of the current Hospital, says Mr Sainsbury.

Such facilities that cater for those at the end of their lives is particularly important given the island’s ageing population, Mr Sainsbury added: “Jersey is seeing a demographic change. We know that we have an increasing older population, with that population comes increased dependency on health and care both in hospital and out of hospital.”

This, in combination with the “huge growth” of conditions like cancer and diabetes, causes Mr Sainsbury to worry about how much longer the current Hospital will be able to cater to the health needs of islanders going forward.

Speculating on this uncertain future, Mr Sainsbury told Express: “We could start to see that being compromised, we could see our A&E becoming crowded, we could see our wards becoming more crowded and our bed occupancy going up. 

“We could see that then resulting in people not being able to have their operations and their investigations in as timely a manner because our beds are all full with older, frail and unwell people because we’ve just not been able to keep up with that demand.” 

Tomorrow, Express will be focusing on the maternity department.