Local hospitals failing to treat A&E patients on time

Royal Oldham Hospital Accident and Emergency Department

Local hospitals missed vital targets for getting patients treated on time.

Breaches were discovered with Pennine Acute Hospitals Trust, which runs Rochdale Infirmary, the Royal Oldham, Fairfield, North Manchester hospitals.

Hospitals are required to transfer or discharge patients as quickly as possible after they have been treated in A&E. Those that take longer than a 12 hour period are classed as breaching the rules.

A new report by the NHS Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) says: "Since January, the CCG has been notified of 68 breaches across Bury, Rochdale, Oldham and North Manchester.

"The current level of underperforming against this indicator is (recorded) as a high-level risk."

The report also said that, in November and December, the trust failed to treat 95 per cent of patients arriving at A&E within four hours.

However, Rochdale Infirmary came out as the exception against other hospitals who all had performance levels significantly lower.

A trust spokesman said: "Many trusts across the country are finding this a challenge at present, due to the large number of attendances and admissions.

"We recently introduced a new arrangement to speed up admission for those who need it.

"We have also been working closely with primary care, community care and social services to improve patient flow in and out of our hospitals and to speed up treatment and discharge for our patients.

"The public can help us by only coming to A&E in a genuine emergency and seeking help from a community pharmacist, GP or NHS 111 instead if they have a minor ailment."