Shropshire orthopaedic hospital to cut waiting times for routine operations
Monitor has taken action to help reduce patient waiting times at Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.
Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Foundation Trust will speed up how quickly it provides patients with routine care and improve the way it is run, following action taken by Monitor.
Following an investigation, the health sector regulator has identified that there are problems in the way in which the trust delivers some of its services.
Monitor will now support the trust, which provides specialist orthopaedic services across Shropshire and the surrounding areas, to significantly reduce waiting times for routine operations.
To enable these and other improvements across the hospital, the regulator wants to see improvements in the accuracy of the trust’s reported data on these waiting times. In addition the trust will develop and implement an effective and robust recovery plan.
The trust will put together an action plan designed to help improve how it is run. Part of this will involve putting the right level of oversight in place to ensure improvements are made quickly and prevent similar problems from happening again.
The regulator intends to appoint an Improvement Director, who will provide expertise and advice to the trust as it fixes its problems. To complement this, Monitor will provide access to experts who will work with the trust to help speed up its improvements and keep waiting times down.
Frances Shattock, Regional Director at Monitor, said:
We are taking action at Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Foundation Trust because patients are waiting too long for treatment and because the trust needs to improve how it is run. We recognise the trust is working to make the right improvements, but we have stepped in to ensure oversight is in place to deliver quick and effective change.
By taking action, we can help the trust make the changes it needs to provide quality care in a timely way to patients.
Monitor will continue to scrutinise the trust’s performance and may take further regulatory action if necessary.