10/03/10

Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust welcomes the involvement of Monitor in checking that it achieves the targets needed to deliver the best care to patients, as is required of all NHS Foundation Trusts.

Monitor is the regulatory body which sets out a compliance regime which must be met by all Foundation Trusts.

Evelyn Barker, Deputy Chief Executive and Director of Service Delivery, said: “This is part of an on-going dialogue that we have with Monitor and is all about making sure that we are achieving what we have set out to achieve, and what is expected of us at a national level.

“I would like to reinforce that the staff in our Emergency Departments are to be commended for their continued hard work and dedication to their work and the patients we see.”

Trusts are required to see, treat and either admit or discharge 98% of patients who come through our Emergency Department, within four hours.

In the last 12 months the Trust has struggled to consistently see 98% of patients within four hours, and whilst the target was not achieved at the end of the first or third quarters the target was achieved in the second quarter (July – September), and the most recent figures for March are showing that 98% of patients are being seen within the four hours.

In January the snow brought a high number of people through our Emergency Departments which contributed to the difficulty in achieving the four-hour target.

Evelyn Barker said: “The Trust is committed to putting patients at the heart of everything we do, providing safe services and performing well across our services.

“We continue to work hard within the Trust and with our health community, and Monitor on the actions we are taking to improve the Trust’s performance.”