The Voice of Spalding and South Holland
Accident and emergency waiting time figures for the United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust are the worst in the country.
Figures released earlier this week show that the trust achieved just 67.2 per cent in the maximum four hour wait target for A&E. This put it at the bottom of the pile of 130 trusts with an A&E department and it hasn’t hit the national target of 95 per cent since September 2014.
The neighbouring Queen Elizabeth Hospital King’s Lynn Trust had 84 per cent of patients seen within the four hour benchmark, which places it 95 from the 130 trusts.
Nearly one in five local hospital services are consistently failing to hit targets.
The figures were released showing that the ULHT was one of 16 trusts which missed all their monthly targets – A&E, cancer care in 62 days, and planned operations and care in 18 weeks.
The ULHT achieved 78.4 per cent in terms of 62-day cancer care against a target of 85 per cent. The Queen Elizabeth Hospital Trust King’s Lynn is 80.3 per cent.
The planned operation 18-week target of 92 per cent saw the ULHT achieve 82 per cent and 81.2 per cent at the QEH Trust.
“The quality and safety of patient care is the Trust’s number one priority. Our staff work extremely hard and we know the majority of our patients feel we offer a good and caring service,” said a statement from the ULHT chief operating officer Mark Brassinton.
“Over the last year we have seen more patients using our services, often above national increases, which has placed pressure on all of our hospitals. We also have workforce challenges, which reflect national shortages of staff across a range of specialties and like many rural areas we have been particularly affected by this.
“Despite these challenges we have improved against a number of cancer standards and maintained our waiting list position. We also accept our performance has deteriorated in our emergency departments,” he added.
