Hospital gets £100,000 bonus (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Hospital gets £100,000 bonus

SALISBURY Health Care Trust has been given £100,000 by the department of health for improving its waiting times at Salisbury District Hospital's A&E department.

The trust is one of two in the region that achieved an average of at least 94 per cent of people who had waited no longer than four hours in A&E from arrival to admission, transfer or discharge during December.

Hospitals face five key steps to achieve government target figures and the £100,000 is Salisbury's reward for achieving one of them.

Trusts can receive a total of up to £500,000, with each allocation of £100,000 representing a key step.

The steps start at 94 per cent, increasing to 98 per cent by the end of the year.

Peter Hill, director of operations, said Salisbury's A&E department treated about 33,000 people a year.

He said: "A&E and other wards and departments that link in with it are inevitably going to be busy and responsive areas of the hospital.

"By reviewing the traditional way that A&E works, our staff have been able to speed up the treatment people receive and improve the experience that they have when they are there.

"One area where we have seen real improvement is in the assessment of medical and surgical emergencies, in particular those referred by GPs.

"Some of these patients can bypass A&E and go straight to assessment areas on wards.

"This not only leaves A&E staff with more time to deal with other medical emergencies and major and minor injuries, but also means that patients who might need admission are already in a ward area being assessed by specialist staff."