Hospital bosses cut A&E waiting times
PATIENTS are being seen more quickly at Stepping Hill Hospital after bosses worked to cut A&E waiting times.
Health regulator Monitor told the Stockport hospital to make changes in August 2014 and warned it would take further action if the trust’s board did not demonstrate it was tackling the problem.
It came after the hospital was found to have missed a national target to admit, discharge or transfer 95 per cent of patients within four hours.
It was revealed this win- ter how the trust missed that target for 21 weeks running from the end of November until the end of April.
In the week ending January 4, just 59.3pc of patients were seen within the target time – the worst figure for any hospital trust in the country.
But the hospital has now been meeting the tar- get each week from the week ending April 26.
Monitor says bosses have also shown that they are running and governing the hospital effectively.
But the hospital will remain subject to regulatory action until Monitor can be sure the improvements to A&E waiting times are maintained.
Paul Chandler, regional director for Monitor, said: “The trust has also taken steps to cut waiting times in its A&E department, but we want to make sure they keep this up.”
Shadow health minister Andrew Gwynne raised concerns when Stepping Hill was revealed as the worst performing trust in the country for A&E waiting. He said at the time: “To be fair to Stepping Hill, they have done everything expected of them.
“They have GPs based in A&E, they have a social care attachment to A&E for the elderly and vulnerable people to be taken out of the chaos, so its really worrying.”
Gillian Easson, the hos- pital trust’s chairman, said: “We are very pleased that Monitor is happy with the effectiveness and governance of our board.
“This positive and welcome endorsement will hopefully give our patients and community real confidence in the leadership of our organisation.
“We know that Monitor still wants reassurances about us consistently achieving the A&E fourhour waiting target, but we are pleased that good progress is also being made in this challenging area. Staff have been working immensely hard to ensure that A&E patients receive speedy, as well as high quality and safe care.”