Morecambe Bay Hospitals Trust under fire: Boss admits problems but won’t respond to ‘quit’ call (From The Westmorland Gazette)

Morecambe Bay Hospitals Trust under fire: Boss admits problems but won’t respond to ‘quit’ call

10:00am Thursday 17th November 2011 in Lancaster news By Allan Tunningley

MORECAMBE Bay hospitals trust boss Tony Halsall has addressed the issue of follow-up appointment failures which it has been claimed affected more than 30,000 outpatients.

But Mr Halsall declined to respond in detail to criticisms made by a senior clinician who called on him and fellow trust members to resign.

He said 682 urgent cases and 154 priority patients had been identified and these were being dealt with.

“There has been a problem with part of our appointments system which has led to delays in some follow-up appointments and we are very sorry for the effect this has had on some of our patients,”

said Mr Halsall.

“Everyone at the trust is committed to providing a high quality service for our patients and we have been making every effort to deal with the problem as quickly as possible.

“We still have some way to go before all patients will have had an appointment but have made significant progress.

“We also need to understand what caused these problems and I have therefore appointed an external expert to carry out a thorough analysis of all the issues, including looking at all the factors that may have contributed to the problem.”

Medical director Peter Dyer said: “We are obviously concerned about the impact these delays may have had on patient care.

“However, it is impossible to generalise about the impact of these delays.

“Each individual case is being reviewed by clinical staff and our consultants will talk directly to patients about the management of their care.”

The trust says all priority patients will have had new appointments by Saturday and urgent cases will have been seen by December 3.

Managers have put on additional clinics and extra members of staff are helping to ensure that patients who have been affected by the delays are contacted and given new appointments as a matter of urgency.

An experienced hospital operations expert has also been brought in by the trust to lead this work.

The trust has been prioritising cases according to clinical input and opinion, which includes the review team and hospital consultants.

The 154 patients as priorities have all been contacted and given appointments to see a clinician by this coming Saturday.

The 682 urgent patients have all been given appointments to see a clinician by December 3.

Eddie Kane, chairman of UHMBT, said: “We are obviously disappointed that these problems have occurred and both the trust board and the board of governors have sought assurances that the necessary action is being taken without delay.

“It is clear that everyone in the Trust is taking these issues very seriously and working hard to deal with them quickly and effectively.

“Everyone’s focus needs to remain on dealing with current problems and helping to build a stronger trust for the benefit of everyone in the Morecambe Bay area.”