Shropshire Star

Health bosses working to cut waiting times at Shropshire Hospitals

Health bosses say they are working hard to reduce the number of patients who experience long waits in the county’s emergency departments.

Published
Princess Royal Hospital A&E

It comes as a new report to Shropshire Clinical Commissioning Group’s governance board revealed 15 patients were left waiting on trolleys for more than 12 hours at Shropshire’s A&E departments in April.

Hospital chiefs at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust said the emergency departments at both Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and Princess Royal Hospital in Telford continued to be under great pressure.

Last month, working with the emergency care intensive support team, the trust carried out ‘acute medicine start of change weeks’ at both sites to identify ways to improve how and where patients are treated as they enter hospital. Heath bosses say the work is ongoing. Nigel Lee, chief operating officer at SaTH, said: “No one should have to wait longer than necessary for treatment, but in common with A&E departments across the country, both of our A&Es continued to be under great pressure in April and our priority remains ensuring that all of our patients receive the right care for their condition.”

Shropshire’s CCG’s governance board was told last week that there had been an improvement in A&E performance. Figures put before the board said 73 per cent of A&E patients were seen within the four-hour government waiting target in May – an improvement from 68.2 per cent in April.

It was the trust’s best performance since August last year, but still falls short of the 95 per cent target. Board members heard that the recent recruitment of staff would help. A report said no patients affected by trolley waits of more than 12 hours came to any harm.