Leicestershire Live reports that the Chief Operating Officer at University Hospitals of Leicester (UHL) NHS Trust has apologised to patients over care delays.
He said that progress was made last year compared to 2022 performance, however, added that local health bosses “absolutely don’t accept where [they] are.”
Data shows thousands of patients waiting for care
The reports come shortly after new data revealed that thousands of patients had been left waiting in Leicester Royal Infirmary’s Emergency Department for more than 24 hours last year.
UHL was shown to have failed to meet targets for patient waits at A&E in March, and in elective treatment and cancer waits in February.
In addition, the most recent data also showed East Midlands Ambulance Service to be the second worst ambulance service in the country when it came to responding to the most urgent calls.
The Chief Operating Officer, Jon Melbourne, said:
“We are very clear there are patients, people, waiting too long on both our planned care and our urgent and emergency care pathways. I apologise sincerely to anyone who has waited for too long.”
Improvements
Mr Melbourne said that there had been areas of progress and improvement at UHL.
He said that the Trust had made significant improvements since the pandemic. At that time, Leicester was placed into tier one – the most challenged level – for urgent and emergency care, planned care, and cancer care.
Last year, urgent and emergency care was moved to tier three, which is the least challenged level. Cancer and planned care were moved to tier two.
Plans to achieve continued improvement
Following a challenging winter, Mr Melbourne acknowledged that “We have a significant number of people every day awaiting a bed in our hospitals.”
He has reported to councillors that UHL is working to ensure it has the right care capacity in the right areas of the hospital, and that people are in the right place for the care they require.
Work has also been undertaken to ensure the emergency department is equipped to deal with the longer waits. Hospitals have introduced medical teams into A&E who can progress care while people wait.
In addition, works to create more treatment spaces for patients continue with the Hinckley Diagnostics Centre, and East Midlands Planned Care Centre.
Comment
Whilst the improvements which have been made over the last year or so, particularly since the pandemic, and the continued plans for further improvements are important and should be acknowledged, it remains a shocking and worrying fact that this is all far from good enough. There are still patients waiting too long for the care they need. This could result in catastrophic consequences with delays to treatment resulting in avoidable outcomes. People’s health and lives are at risk.
It is vital that UHL keep up the momentum of the work that has been started to improve the statistics.
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Danielle Young is a Legal Director in our Medical Negligence team, which is ranked in Tier One by the independently researched publication, The Legal 500, and Commended in The Times Best Law Firms 2024.
If you have any questions about the subjects discussed in this article, please contact Danielle or another team member in Derby, Leicester, or Nottingham on 0800 024 1976 or via our online enquiry form.
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