Frustration mounts over A&E waiting

NHS Oldham board meeting

INCREASING numbers of people are facing a wait in excess of four hours at the Royal Oldham Hospital’s accident and emergency department.

Latest figures showed the four-hour target was hit in only 76 per cent of cases during the worst of this winter — well below the 95 per cent goal.

Increases in the complexity of conditions were partly to blame, resulting in an unprecedented demand on critical care beds.

Buts NHS Oldham chairman Riaz Ahmad said he was “hugely disappointed,” considering the money, time and effort which had been put in to rectify the problem.

He said: “I don’t know what the answer is,” and highlighted the knock-on effect to other services, including emergency ambulances who were being left “stacked up” outside the hospital until patients could be accepted.

Overall, since October, just under 94 per cent of patients have been seen within the four-hour target.

Board member Dr Hugh Sturgess said he too was frustrated by the situation, but stressed how hard clinicians and supporting staff were working, which had resulted in “a remarkable and sustained improvement” in waiting times before the severe winter weather set in.


Tough action saves £16m

TOUGH action which lopped £16 million from NHS Oldham’s budget has paid off, and the organisation is on track to break even by the end of the financial year.

Steve Sutcliffe, the new deputy chief executive said some “very difficult choices” had had to be made, and warned next year would be even more difficult, with the prospect of further unprecedented savings to be made.

Measures taken so far include a recruitment freeze, a stop on spending on consultants, fewer agency staff, the axing of the overnight service at Oldham’s Walk In Centre, and the closure at the end of this month of the community recovery unit at Shawside, Shaw.

“We need to be putting plans in place now to deliver a balanced budget next year,” he said.