Non urgent patients time wait pledge

PEOPLE who need non-urgent hospital treatment in Yarmouth and Waveney are being promised they will have to wait no more than four months, and less time than most parts of the country.

PEOPLE who need non-urgent hospital treatment in Yarmouth and Waveney are being promised they will have to wait no more than four months, and less time than most parts of the country.

There is a national target for a maximum 18-week wait between referral and treatment, which all hospitals must meet for 90pc of inpatients and 95pc of outpatients, whatever the treatment. But NHS Yarmouth and Waveney is asking the James Paget University Hospital in Gorleston to hit a 16-week target.

At yesterday's board meeting, chairman David Edwards said: 'This organisation has achieved 18 weeks and it is trying to reduce that further to 16 weeks. We are looking at the financial and organisational implications of doing that.'

In NHS Norfolk's area, the target remains 18 weeks. Anna Bennett, director of planning and performance, said there was no intention to reduce it. She said the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in King's Lynn was already meeting it and the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital was set to achieve the same by the end of this month.

The Yarmouth and Waveney meeting also heard that the health trust was failing to meet one of its national targets because ambulances have not been meeting eight-minute emergency response times across the region through the year - though they did achieve the 75pc target in January.