Monitor
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Patients at York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust waiting too long for A&E and cancer care
Some patients in Yorkshire are waiting too long to be assessed for emergency and cancer care, leading to an investigation being launched by Monitor.
The health sector regulator believes that repeated failure to ensure patients are seen quickly enough could indicate wider problems in how York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust is run.
The trust, which provides a range of acute hospital and specialist health care services in Yorkshire, has failed to meet the quarterly national A&E waiting time target for the fifth time in nearly 2 years and there is evidence that some patients are waiting too long to be seen once referred for cancer treatment.
Although the trust has plans in place to improve its A&E performance and to cut cancer waiting times, Monitor is concerned that it has taken too long to fix these serious issues.
Frances Shattock, Regional Director at Monitor, said:
It is simply not acceptable for patients to be waiting too long in A&E or to be seen following a cancer referral. That’s why we are opening an investigation to understand the issues and, if necessary, make sure the trust makes urgent improvements on behalf of its patients.
Monitor will announce the outcome of its regulatory investigation in due course.
