10 out of 11 Health Targets Missed
06/01/2020, 17:54
https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/news/18105854.10-11-health-targets-blackburn-darwen-missed/
TEN out of 11 health targets for Blackburn with Darwen are currently being missed, clinical commissioners have been told.
And eight out of 11 of the same benchmarks in East Lancashire are also failing to meet targets, an NHS performance committee has been told.
A leading health campaigner says the results for Blackburn with Darwen and East Lancashire clinical commissioning groups are “disappointing”, amid concerns Brexit could also make it more difficult to recruit much-needed staff.
Like most months over the past two years, the four-hour waiting target for accident and emergency at the Royal Blackburn Hospital, which stands at 95 per cent of cases, has not been achieved, at 85.16 per cent across the board.
Clinical commissioners have been told that the closure of access facilities at Accrington Victoria Hospital in July 2018 had contributed to the problem.
Cervical screening rates, for both 25 to 49-year-olds and those aged 50 plus, within either the past three-and-a-half or five-and-a-half years respectively, have also not been met for either area.
Smoking levels among pregnant women, at the time of delivery, are above the national average.
NHS bosses expect 5.5 per cent of patients attempting to access psychological treatments to have achieved this by the fourth quarter of the year but both CCGs are lagging behind.
Eighteen-week waiting list targets for all patients are also a cause for concern.
The cancer treatment targets have produced mixed results - while both areas could say they had offered the first definitive treatment within one month of diagnosis, a two-month target had been missed.
While Blackburn with Darwen had just failed to offer appointments to 93 per cent of patients within two weeks of an urgent GP referral, East Lancs narrowly passed the test.
Russ McLean, chairman of East Lancashire Patients Voice, said: “These results are very disappointing but indicative of what is going on across the NHS. If you couple this with Brexit and uncertainty over the recruitment of nurses from Europe, then this is worrying.”
Officials from Blackburn with Darwen and East Lancs CCGs were unavailable for comment last night.
0 comments
Leave a Reply