West Herts Hospitals under winter pressure

The Board of the NHS Trust heard both good and less good news at its first meeting in public in 2009.

Good news is that it is keeping MRSA numbers low with only 11 cases so far this year. It is also meeting national targets to treat patients within 18 weeks of referral by their GP. Its £1m surplus so far this year is further good news, although this is a smaller surplus than forecast, so it was greeted with muted approval.

However there were some bad things too, including seasonal pressures on beds impacting on A&E performance in December, which therefore failed to treat 98% of patients within four hours of arrival.

Worse from the patients perspective, was an admission that for some aspects of mandatory staff training there is currently a compliance of only 40% - this appeared to shock some members of the Board and certainly shocked the public who heard the report.

Also there was an admission that some wards are operating with less that their agreed complement of staff, because recruitment of additional staff has not been sufficiently successful. Bank and agency staff have been used, but they are costly, and that expense has undermined the Trust’s financial planning.

After a number of Board meetings with only good news, this meeting was less self-congratulatory than other recent meetings. However this Trust’s remarkable recovery from dismal failure must not be forgotten. It has accomplished near miracles and it is that success which makes this Trust well on its way towards achieving foundation trust status, which at one time was unthinkable.


Joan