It’s time to end tough targets for hard-pressed NHS workers
THE challenges facing those working in the NHS locally show no signs of going away, if information from the East Lancashire Hospitals Trust is anything to go by.
The East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust reported that 81 per cent of people who turned up at Accident and Emergency for treatment were seen within four hours – significantly below the 95 per cent target set by the Government.
That means four times out of five when you go to casualty, you’ll be in and out within four hours.
When you consider the fact that you could turn up with any one of probably millions of problems or illnesses, it seems a quite remarkable feat.
In real terms, it means of the 17,950 people who visited A&E in the month, 14,987 were treated on time.
There were just five breaches of the 12-hour trolley wait for people who were awaiting a bed.
The number of people who had to wait in an ambulance for more than 30 minutes for treatment once arriving at hospital rose to 840 – up from 674 in February.
A further 1,159 people had to wait 15-30 minutes.
Again, you’ll find very few people who will complain about the standard of care they received. In some ways, look at these sorts of targets distracts from the bigger issue: if you get good care, you’re happy, and you’re happy to wait if it makes you better.
But these sorts of targets have – unusually for government targets – been around for a number of years, and they show that life is progressively getting harder for doctors and nurses – and all frontline staff – to meet those targets.
A few years ago, it was rare for our A&E to miss its four-hour wait target, and if it did so, it was only by a few percent.
Now it seems very unlikely A&E can hit the target because of the pressures it faces.
And that’s despite all sorts of work going on at the hospital.
The ‘winter escalation ward’ – previously used when the hospital saw increased attendances during the winter – is now open well into spring.
GPs are being hired to work in an urgent care centre next to A&E to try and divert some of the more minor cases.
Recruitment of staff from overseas to plug staffing shortages is taking place.
Patients being directed to other departments rather than being sent to A&E as standard by GPs and minor injury unites.
All great ideas, but those targets don’t seem to get any closer.
Royal Blackburn receives more ambulances a month than any other hospital in the North West – that surely begs the question of whether the decision a decade ago to merge the A&Es in Blackburn and Burnley was a good idea.
A report to the ELHT sums up the problem as “Demand has exceeded capacity.”
It’s as simple as that. That problem is then compounded by the fact that beds aren’t readily available to move people on for more detailed treatment elsewhere.
And if you’re working in A&E, despite all that effort, it must be quite demoralising to know that targets are being missed.
Maybe, just maybe, it’s time for our political leaders to stop pushing such tough targets on our hard-pressed hospitals and pay more attention to the assessment which matters most: How well people feel they were treated.
Time and again, our local medics achieve ‘approval’ ratings north of 95 per cent for how well they treated patients.
Surely that’s what matters most?
And, against the backdrop of pressures outlined by the hospital trust, that is surely a remarkable achievement.