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Peterborough City Hospital struggled to meet A&E demand
Peterborough City Hospital
PETERBOROUGH City Hospital has missed the national target set for treating patients in casualty on time almost every day this year.
The £289 million super hospital has struggled to meet the demand of the number of people turning up every day to the Accident and Emergency Department.
Up until Friday, the hospital, run by Peterborough and Stamford Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, only managed to see and treat 88 per cent of patients within four hours of them arriving.
The Government set target is to treat 95 per cent people within four hours.
The issue was highlighted at last week’s governors meeting of the trust when Clive Walsh, interim chief operating officer, told the board.
He said: “We were under considerable pressure for the first part of this month, our performance was well below the 95 per cent target.
“We seem to be coming out of that. We remain confident that through this period the service we are offering to our patients in the emergency department is safe and to a high standard.”
If January’s figure remains below 95 per cent by the end of the month, it will be the second month in which the target was missed.
In December it was 94 per cent, although that is above the 93.5 per cent target set by the trust with regulator Monitor and NHS Peterborough.
But the figures took a hammering over the holiday period, particularly on the days immediately following the New Year Bank Holiday Monday.
It was suggested this was down to people putting up with a problem while their doctors were shut and then getting referred to the hospital.
During that period, 20 per cent of operations had to be cancelled because of the pressure on the hospital.
One of the governors, Susan Mahmoud, said: “It still seems in many ways that we are breaking our targets because GPs are difficult to get hold of over the holiday period which is not fair on us.”
But Mr Walsh said he would not feel comfortable supporting that view.
MP for Peterborough Stewart Jackson said it was a long-running problem and patients needed educating.
He said: “There is a long-standing problem with this. When you get a new facility you obviously attract more people to use them.
“Too many people are going to A&E when they should be going to the walk-in centre or their own GP.
“People need to be better informed because it is costing the health service a lot of money.
“That will take time but we should consider the idea that people who attend hospital because of a drunken accident should face financial responsibility.”
Since January 12 the figures have improved and on Monday last all 261 people who visited casualty were treated within four hours.
And a trust spokeswoman said: “Since the festive period, the trust has, like many others around the region, experienced a higher number of medical admissions.
“This has had an impact on the waiting times in A&E. However, since 12 January there has been an improvement with us hitting or exceeding the national standard for four hour waits almost every day.
“This is partly to do with medical admissions dropping, but also due to the hard work of staff in ensuring patients are treated as quickly as possible.”
FACTFILE: A&E figures
THE worst day for the A&E department this month was Wednesday, January 4.
Only 72.7 per cent of the 249 people who arrived at A&E were treated within four hours, leaving 68 people to wait more than four hours.
Monday, January 9, was the busiest day in terms of the numbers of patients.
There were 284 people in A&E that day, with only 76.8 per cent of people treated in less than four hours - 66 people had to wait more than four hours.
To date, Monday, January 16, was the best day with all 261 patients treated within four hours.
New Year’s Day was about average, with 86.2 per cent treated in four hours.
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Weather for Peterborough
Saturday 26 May 2012
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