'We will clear hospital appointments backlog' say health chiefs (From The Westmorland Gazette)

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'We will clear hospital appointments backlog' say health chiefs

4:50pm Wednesday 1st February 2012 in News Photograph of the Author By Helen Perkins, Reporter

HEALTH chiefs say they will clear 19,000 excess appointments at their hospitals with extended surgeries.

Bosses from the University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay Trust said they were ‘confident’ their overflowing outpatient appointments list could be sorted out by the end of March.

To do this, some patients will be asked to attend Royal Lancaster Infirmary and Furness General Hospital, in Barrow, as late as 7.30pm.

Extra clinical surgeries during the day have also been organised to help tackle the extra workload, which equates to 19 days of hospital time.

It was one of the strategies discussed at Cumbria County Council’s Health and Well Being scrutiny meeting, where councillors questioned health bosses over their improvement plans.

Committee chairman Coun Bill Wearing voiced concern over extended hours, saying many people would struggle to get to later appointments.

However, the trust said it would consult patients over appointment times by telephone or letter to ensure they were suitable.

Trust chief executive Tony Halsall said they had analysed their patient booking methods to ensure they avoided future appointment delays. The trust is expected to publish their findings in a report later this month.

Trust members and medical directors from across the region also discussed maternity services at Furness General Hospital, which was raised as an area of concern by health watchdog the Care Quality Commission last year.

Mr Halsall announced that more than 11 midwives had been added to teams across its hospitals and they had trained 150 staff to manage risk, using expertise from Manchester medical consultants.

Theresa Chapman, a consultant midwife from London Imperial NHS Trust, said there had been a ‘significant change in culture’ in the last three months. “Staff are now more confident in clinical decision making and being able to articulate their decisions,” she said.

Mr Halsall said: “We don’t want to paint the picture that everything is fixed but having a single risk log and action plan and retraining people to manage risks will help us keep focused on sustainable changes.”

Two further reports, expected this month, will raise concern over two different elements of management at the trust. A CQC report, based on an unannounced inspection of emergency care pathways, is expected to be released soon.

Mr Halsall said it would raise concerns over nurse staffing levels at busy times.

Additionally, a report from watchdog Monitor is expected to demand changes to the way the organisation is governed.

Comments(26)

gadgetgadget says...
5:20pm Wed 1 Feb 12

More toothless management speak from Halsall - too many examples still of the appointments system being wrong.

19k appointments now in backlog thought it was less than that before Christmas ?

This was promised to be cleared by March 2012. Another broken promise Halsall ??