Oswestry hospital upbeat despite missing target
Shropshire's specialist orthopaedic hospital is still not meeting waiting time targets – but bosses say they are on course to hit them by the end of June.
Oswestry Orthopaedic Hospital in Gobowen, near Oswestry, is treating 65.12 per cent of patients who need to be admitted within 18 weeks. Its target is 90 per cent.
Targets are set at 95 per cent for day-case procedures for Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the hospital, and 92 per cent for open pathways – patients awaiting their first definitive treatment. Neither goal has been reached.
The hospital is also missing targets for treating all Welsh patients within 52 weeks.
But Jayne Downey, director of nursing at the hospital, said the hospital is on track to meet the open pathways target and Welsh patients targets by the end of the month.
At a meeting of the trust's executive board yesterday Mrs Downey said: "We continue to monitor on a daily and weekly basis, and we're hoping we will be able to reach the 92 per cent target for open pathways treatment by the end of June.
"Two Welsh patients had been waiting for longer than 52 weeks at the end of May but both have now been given dates for their treatment."
The trust treated more than 103,000 outpatients in 2014/15 and more than 15,000 inpatients. There has been a steady rise in the number of inpatients treated since 2011.
Frank Collins, trust board chairman, praised staff for their work to help meet the standards during the meeting.
He said: "I think it is important to highlight the collective effort that's gone in across the organisation to secure an improvement in our performance. The fact that we are on a trajectory to hit the target for open pathways should be recorded and our appreciation shown for all our staff."
An inquiry was launched at the hospital at the start of June by government health regulators as too many patients were waiting longer than the 18-week national target.
