Pledge over waits for treatment Oswestry Orthopaedic Hospital
No English patient should be waiting more than a year for treatment at Shropshire's specialist orthopaedic hospital by the end of next month – unless they have delayed their surgery.
Treatment plans are being drawn up for the patients waiting the longest at Oswestry Orthopaedic Hospital, board members were told.
It comes after health regulator Monitor criticised the hospital last year because too many patients had waited longer than the 18-week national target for day-case or inpatient procedures at the trust.
At the end of February there were 21 English patients who had been waiting more than 52 weeks for treatment at the hospital, yesterday's board meeting of Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Foundation Trust was told. Twelve of those patients were waiting through their own choice.
Kim Barrow, director of nursing at the hospital, said that by the end of April those who had not chosen to wait would all have been treated.
A report from Craig Macbeth, acting director of finance, said that 85 per cent of English patients at the hospital fell within the 18-week referral to treatment targets. Although this was below the national 92 per cent target it was within a predicted tolerance level, he said.
The Welsh government has a 26-week target for its patients. There are 28 Welsh patients – all from North Wales – who have been waiting more than 52 weeks, mainly because of problems with the contract with the commissioner before Christmas.
Ms Barrow said the majority of the long wait patients were spinal patients and ones with particularly complex problems.
She said Welsh long wait patients were being managed in line with revised contract instructions.
February has also seen an improvement on the number of people treated as day case patients – now 49.14 per cent, still slightly short of the 51 per cent target.
The trust board was told that the hospital was expecting to break even at the end of the financial year.
Directors were also told that progress was being made to tackle problems with hygiene standards.
New measures have been drawn up to address concerns raised in a report by the Care Quality Commission.
Measures will include training 80 "hand hygiene champions" and commissioning an external review of paediatric services.
The CQC report said improvements were required at the hospital in learning and feedback from incidents, inconsistent compliance with hand hygiene standards, and in out-of-hours paediatric medical cover.