Shropshire medics paid £40 an hour to clear patient wait list
Staff at Shropshire's orthopaedic hospital are being paid £40 an hour overtime in an attempt to clear a backlog of patients waiting for routine operations.
Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the hospital in Gobowen, near Oswestry, is offering staff in specialist positions four times the usual overtime rate as it tries to bring down waiting times.
It was revealed this week that Monitor, the government's health regulator, has launched an inquiry into the hospital.
It is concerned that far too many patients are waiting longer than the 18-week national target for routine operations.
However hospital bosses have admitted the pay boost is a short-term solution to the problem, and they are also looking to recruit more staff to ease pressure on the system.
In a statement, trust bosses said: "Short term premium payment is currently applied to a small number of staff but this is due to shortages in these specialities which reflects the national position and is not related to any local factors."
Monitor's investigation will examine the extent of the problems, why they have occurred and what can be done to fix them. Concerns were raised in March over the long waiting times, and the trust said it had taken steps to address the problem.
But this month the trust's figures showed only 70 per cent of admitted patients were treated within 18 weeks, compared with a national target of 90 per cent.
Meanwhile 89 per cent of day surgery patients were treated within 18 weeks, compared with a national target of 95 per cent.
Monitor is also looking into suggestions that the trust has been inaccurately reporting waiting times amid concerns that the poor performance may indicate there are wider issues with how the trust is run.
Katherine Cawley, regional director at Monitor, said: "Some patients aren't being treated within a reasonable amount of time at Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt.
"We need to find out what the problem is and how we can best support the trust in improving this and how it is run.
"We are investigating the trust to find out why it isn't meeting these targets, and if we need to take further action to make sure local patients aren't waiting too long."
