
The NHS Trust that runs Scarborough Hospital has welcomed a reduction in the number of people waiting on trolleys for more than 12 hours.
The York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has seen a more than 60 per cent reduction in the number of people waiting on trolleys for more than 12 hours at its emergency departments in Scarborough, York, and Bridlington.
Martin Barkley, chair of the trust, said that the number of people waiting was “still appalling”.
Speaking at the trust’s board meeting on Wednesday, July 30, he added:
“It’s a third of what it was when I first started here, so, a 66 per cent reduction, which is jolly, jolly good.”
The number of 12-hour trolley waits has reduced for the past three months.
In June, the number of 12-hour trolley waits was 377, in May, it was 445, and in April, the number of patients waiting on trolleys for 12-hours or more was 628.
Last December, 1,057 patients waited on trolleys for more than 12 hours at the trust’s hospitals during an “incredibly tough” winter period.
Mr Barkley noted that the number of ambulance arrivals in June had been “the highest it’s ever been”, but that there had been a reduction in the number of ambulance handovers that took longer than 45 minutes.
A report to board members also revealed that the trust had received
“the highest volume of referrals ever seen at the trust, at 3,049, which is the first time the trust has received more than 3,000 referrals in a month, and all cancer sites except for lung saw an increase of referrals”.
The national deadline for cancer reporting runs one month behind other data, meaning that the most recent figures are for May.
The board was notified that the trust was failing to achieve its monthly improvement trajectory for the 28-day Faster Diagnosis standard, and in the latest available national data from April 2024, the trust ranked 128th out of 137 providers nationally.
Mr Barkley said:
“I’m very clear that the first priority of an acute trust is the emergencies, the second priority is cancer, and everything else is third place.
“So, we’ve absolutely got to prioritise the cancers.”
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