The emergency department at the QMC continues to fall behind the national target of treating 95 per cent of patients within four hours.
According to the latest data from NHS England, only 79.3 per cent of patients in February requiring urgent and emergency treatment at the QMC received help within the four hours.
The Care Quality Commission, the hospital inspectorate, rated the emergency department at the QMC as ‘requiring improvement’.
For the month of March, the QMC say performance is up to 81.4 per cent and is currently up to 83.2 per cent for this month.
Chief Operating Officer at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs the QMC, Caroline Shaw said: “We did not achieve the national four hour standard in 16/17, despite the hard work and focus on flow and reducing discharge delays by the staff across NUH and wider health and social care system.
“Our performance has been better in recent months and improving performance remains a priority for NUH and the wider health and social care system.”
In June, July and August 2016 the hospital’s A&E department was more than 20 per cent below the Government’s 95 per cent benchmark of all patients treated or discharged within four hours.
The QMC issued black alerts in November and December because their emergency department was unable to cope with demand.
Since then however, the percentage of patients being treated has increased month by month.
Caroline Shaw said: “The constructive feedback the system has received from the Emergency Care Improvement Programme and Care Quality Commission after its December 2016 inspection has informed where we need to focus our energy to ensure patients get the timely care they deserve.
“CQC rated caring as ‘good’ though there remains more to do to reduce extended waits in our Emergency Department and discharge delays.”
“This includes improving the consistency of our internal processes to improve flow in and through our hospitals, strengthening our streaming processes and the way we assess patients at the front door and other new developments such as GPs, community matrons and NUH staff working together on a ward at QMC to reduce discharge delays when patients are ready to transfer from our care.
“We are developing a business case for a new urgent and emergency care centre at QMC to address the overcrowding in ED that was described in the CQC Report.”
Sherwood Forest Hospitals (SFH), which runs the emergency department at King’s Mill hospital, are on the cusp of averaging the national target and currently lie on 94.4 per cent in performance for the last year according to NHS England statistics.
SFH Chief Operating Officer, Roz Howie said: “We have been among the best-performing Trust’s in England for some time, which is a tribute to staff at all three of our sites – King’s Mill Hospital, Newark Hospital and Mansfield Community Hospital.
“Although this tends to shine a light on the dedication and commitment of our urgent care teams, it is actually a signal that the whole of the health and social care system is working effectively to manage admissions and discharges.
“Figures for the Trust as a whole, which includes King’s Mill’s Emergency Department, the Urgent Care Centre at Newark Hospital and the GP-led Primary Care 24 Centre, also at King’s Mill, show we are regularly exceeding or coming close to the 95 per cent target.
“In quarter three of the 2016-2017 financial year we achieved 95.1 per cent, putting us seventh out of 134 English trusts during a period of growing winter pressures.
“It is also with some pride in our staff that, for March, we are able to report we achieved 95.2 per cent.”
