Fewer patients waiting for planned care at Shropshire’s acute hospitals
Fewer patients are waiting for planned procedures and appointments at Shropshire’s acute hospitals – with no children or young people waiting longer than a year for their treatment.
In the last nine months, The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust has reduced the overall number of patients on its elective care waiting list by 20%.
The Trust, which runs Princess Royal Hospital in Telford and Royal Shrewsbury Hospital, is making positive progress on improving access to elective care – with:
· No children or young people waiting in excess of 52 weeks for their planned treatment
· No patients waiting in excess of 65 weeks for their planned treatment
· The number of patients waiting more than 52 weeks for elective treatment reducing by more than 75%
This is down to the improvements the Trust is making to enable more operations and outpatient appointments to take place, reducing the length of time patients are waiting for their treatment. These include:
· The introduction of a new elective theatres timetable, increasing the number of operations
· An increase in the number of outpatient appointments, which are also scheduled further in advance
· The opening of the Planned Care Hub (high volume, low complexity day case surgery) at Princess Royal Hospital in Telford, with more than 5,570 patients now treated
· A successful inaugural High Intensity Theatre (HIT) list, with more planned patients
· Investment in new digital tools such as the Dr Doctor patient engagement portal
The Trust also carried out 1,606 elective procedures in June, which is the highest number of patients treated in one month since October 2017.
Andrena Weston, Acting Divisional Director of Operations for Surgery, Anaesthetics, Cancer and Critical Care, said: “Thanks to the hard work and innovation of our fantastic teams we have been able to increase the number of operations in our theatres and outpatient appointments.
“This has included scheduling patients further in advance, increasing theatre capacity for some specialities including paediatrics, and carrying out our first high volume theatre list at Princess Royal, which saw 11 hernia cases take place in one day.
“It has been a whole team effort including theatres, anaesthetics and booking and scheduling colleagues.”
Mr Joe McCloud, Consultant Surgeon and Divisional Medical Director for Surgery, Anaesthetics, Cancer and Critical Care, said: “This is positive news for our patients as we know that earlier access to routine treatment can lead to a better recovery and improved health outcomes, enabling them to get back to their daily lives as quickly as possible.”
Ned Hobbs, Chief Operating Officer, said: “We remain humble, and know we have much more to do to ensure all our patients are receiving timely elective care, however we are moving in the right direction and towards our ambition of delivering excellent care for everyone.
“We are incredibly proud of our teams who have contributed to improving access to planned care, and we want to thank them for their hard work which is reducing waiting times and improving the experience for our patients.
