Wirral hospital chiefs deny long waits - and blame inputting error

Feb 1 2012 by Helen Hunt, Birkenhead News

WIRRAL hospital bosses today said they only had 14 patients waiting longer than a year for treatment rather than 706.

Last week, Wirral Hospitals – which runs Arrowe Park and Clatterbridge – hit the headlines for having hundreds of people waiting 52-weeks or more for routine treatment – the second highest number in England. Under Government rules they should have been treated within 18 weeks.

But today management of the Trust said they had submitted the wrong figures because they had just switched over to a new computer system.

They said the true figure was 51 patients who remained on the list for 52 weeks or more and only 14 had waited longer than one year.

A spokeswoman for the Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Trust said: “Wirral University Teaching Hospital is committed to providing the highest quality of care as quickly as possible.

“For clinically urgent patients the Trust is performing within the national standards. However for those patients requiring more routine treatment the waiting times are longer than they should be.

“The information reported dates back to November 2011. The figure of 706 people was not accurate and has since been validated.

“In December this figure reduced to 51 patients remaining on the list for 52 weeks or more.

“Following further validation we can confirm that of these 51 patients reported in December in fact only 14 have been waiting longer than one year.”

The spokeswoman added that the Trust was working with local GP commissioners to significantly reduce the number of patients experiencing excessive waits.

The figures last week were released by the Department of Health and show how long patients waited for operations or other treatment after being referred.

At the Royal Liverpool Hospital no patients have waited for a year.

And only four people were on the list at Fazakerley for that length of time.