Hospitals are ‘full to the brim’ as city scrambles to deal with pressure

Hospitals across Liverpool are “full to the brim” as the city faces a soaring increase of alcohol-related admissions in the last 12 months. As with large swathes of the country, the NHS in our region is under increasing pressure with converging factors making it difficult to get people out of hospital.

With existing issues including homelessness, mental health and a lack of social care beds already posing a major challenge for officials, new data provided by Liverpool Council has revealed how almost 5,000 people were admitted to city hospitals in the last 12 months – more than 80% over the national average.

Key performance indicators into how the local authority is handling issues around adult social care and health have shown how in Liverpool, alcohol specific admissions to hospital are “significantly above the England average and have increased over the year.” There were 4,890 admissions in the most recent 12-month period compared to 4,534 at the same time last year, an increase of 8%.

This is 82% above the average for England according to the city council’s own figures, presented to the adult social care and health committee on Tuesday. Anne Marie Lubanski, deputy chief executive and corporate director for adult social care, said: “One of the challenges we’ve got is the complexity in hospital around a mixture of addiction, homelessness and mental health. We have significant challenges at the moment in terms of the number of people in hospital that are medically fit but need somewhere else, whether long-term needs or short-term needs.

“That ties into the housing offer we’ve got as well at this point. We were on a long-term trajectory of coming down because we were far too high some time ago, which is positive, but even today the hospitals are full to the brim so this will be a challenge going forward.”

In a bid to combat the number of people being sent to hospital, city officials said they are developing a tender for a substance misuse provider. The contract will include details of requirements to support alcohol misusers and their families developed using the most up to date National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidance, while a fresh alcohol strategy is also being drawn up.

Further challenges have arisen in the city’s care sector, with new admissions to care homes increasing in the last 12 months. Councillors were told a 15% increase on the same period in 2022/23 had been recorded, mostly down to a demand for complex or specialist places.

The report added: “The long-term trajectory remains on an improving trend and is linked to whole system transformation planning and operational improvements for hospital discharge pathways.” However, the proportion of care homes rated ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ throughout the year has reduced, with just 56% rated as such – a decrease of 15%.

Jason Oxley, director of adult social care, said while these were independent homes, the council had no control but would seek to work alongside them to advise on how best to improve standards of care for residents.