The Voice of Spalding and South Holland
The trusts that operate two of South Holland’s nearest hospitals came in at the very bottom end of tables for meeting targets in A&E waiting times and cancer care response.
For A&E waiting time targets in December, data tracked by the BBC put United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs Pilgrim Hospital in Boston, at 130 out of 133 trusts nationwide.
The figures show 69.5 per cent of A&E patients were treated or admitted within four hours. The target is 95 per cent.
North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust, which runs Peterborough City Hospital, ranked just one above the worst at 132 of 133 trusts.
Just 68.1 per cent of patients were treated or admitted in four hours.
Stephen Graves, Chief Executive at North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust, said: “We have been working hard to improve our performance to ensure that our patients are seen quickly and transferred onto the right pathway, despite an increase in emergency admissions over the last three months.
“We are trying to alleviate pressures by utilising our Ambulatory Care Unit, which provides care for people who do not need to be admitted to hospital, and both our Medical Assessment Unit and Medical Short Stay ward, which provide beds for patients who only require short-term treatment.
“In addition, we are working with our health service partners on initiatives that aim to prevent people needing a trip to hospital for certain ailments. We are also working together on a plan to reduce the higher-than-expected number of patients whose transfer from hospital to another care organisation has been delayed.”
The cancer care target of 85 per cent of people beginning treatment within 62 days of urgent GP referral was met by North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust, which treated 85.7 per cent of patients in the time in November.
United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust, however, managed to begin treatment for just 65.4 per cent of patients, ranking the trust as third worst in the country – 132 of 134. The trust said an extra £250,000 has been invested to improve cancer care.
Deputy Director of Operations Neil Ellis said: “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.
“We have nine cancer targets to achieve, and in recent months our performance against all of these has improved and continues to do so.”
