NHS problems '˜unfixable'

Delayed transfers of care (DTOCs) should equate to no more than 3.5 per cent of all hospital beds, but the Peterborough City Hospital figure is 6.4 per cent and Hinchingbrooke eight per cent.

Stephen Graves, chief executive of the trust which runs both hospitals, said: “These figures only represent a moment in time, but you try telling that to an ambulance driver or a nurse in hospital when the doom and gloom is all that is reported in the media. Figures and statistics are important, but the real picture is far more complicated that just that.”

Council cabinet member for integrated adult social care and health Cllr Wayne Fitzgerald said: “Targets are all well and good, but we are trying to fix something that is unfixable at the moment with a sticky plaster! Unless core funding is found along with a way to attract recruits to the NHS who will stay long term, then DTOC targets are the least of our worries.”