Wolverhampton hospital trust fails to hit waiting time targets all year

The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust, which runs New Cross Hospital, has failed to hit the target of getting 95 per cent of patients ‘seen, treated and either admitted or discharged’ in under four hours since October last year.

And with winter pressures piling up the Trust faces a tough task to improve its performance over the busy Christmas and New Year period. NHS guidelines set out the four-hour A&E target as one of the ‘core standards’ health bosses must aim for.

Councillor Wendy Thompson, who is the vice-chair of Wolverhampton council’s health scrutiny committee, said the hospital trust is facing ‘enormous pressure’, particularly ahead of the winter period.

Councillor Thompson told the Express & Star: “The hospital has been coming under huge pressure. Young children together with an elderly population and the much wider area that the hospital is serving all add up to enormous pressure for them.

“There is no such thing as a perfect hospital but I think taking it all into account they do a great job, although patients can go through frustration in terms of the waiting times and there are pressure points.”

Across the hospital trust in October, 91.55 per cent of patients were seen, treated and then admitted or discharged in under four hours. This was a slight improvement on 91.42 per cent in September, but down on 92.09 per cent in August.

Gwen Nuttell, chief operating officer at the Trust, said: “There are a number of national targets that the Trust works hard to achieve, however, over the last 12 months’ there are times when this hasn’t always been possible.

“Meeting national targets will always be a challenge but we are doing all that we can to ensure our patients are not waiting longer than necessary.”