According the Northern Health & Social Care Trust variation report there will be reduced activity in Daycase and Outpatients for General Surgery until the recruitment of new consultants at The Mid Ulster Hospital site.
According to the NHSCT as at the 20/4/12 1,469 patients were waiting over the 13 week target for treatment in Daycase, with a further 2,980 patients were waiting over 9 weeks for their first outpatient appointment.
These figures while lower than previous months were not improved by the Trust performance, but by the Trust sending patients to private hospitals. As of yet the Trust are yet to reveal how much of they are paying private hospitasl to do the work that the Trust does not have the capacity to carry out.
In new information gained by Save The Mid, the NHSCT are extending their reliance on the private sector for Day case and outpatients with:
· Fitzwilliam Clinic being given a 6 month contract between January-June 2012, to provide General Surgery
· North & west Independent Hospital requesting a duplicate contract, 5 moth contact, to provide Endoscopy Services to NHSCT patients
Within the Contracts Awards Report:
· Brook lands Care home were provided a huge £430,115 contract to provide intermediate care beds between Feb-August 2012.
There is a serious lack of capacity in the Trust to deal with OutPatients and Day cases and this is before the retirement of these Consultants, this had lead to the Trust having to pay private health providers to treats 1,000’s of patients. The NHSCT have such a lack of capacity through its reconfiguration and modernisation plans, this is bad governance and governance that was overseen by the Health & Social Care Board and the Northern Trust.
John Compton CEO of the Health & Social Care Boards review must be seriously questioned as he was part of the bad governance that led to 1,000’s or patients waiting to be treated or diagnosed. He was part of the probema and failed in his review to highlight his own board’s failure to commission appropriate levels of health care within the Northern Trust.
contracts_awarded_may_2012.pdf |