PERFORMANCE data for NHS organisations in North East and North Cumbria has been revealed this week and while improvements have been made, a number of key areas remain "consistently off-target," while winter pressures begin to take their toll on the system.
The North East and North Cumbria NHS board met on Tuesday, making key decisions about healthcare in the area and receiving updates on the work of the region's health trusts.
A report presented to the board on healthcare delivery in the North East and North Cumbria revealed that seven aspects of performance in the region are "consistently off target" but August and September brought signs of improvement.
NHS England expects trusts across the country to make a decision about A&E patients' care within four hours, be it to admit them to hospital, transfer them to another site or discharge them.
And Patients at A&E departments in North East and North Cumbria met this national standard in 78.1 per cent of cases in September.
Jacqueline Myers, Chief Strategy Officer said: "During the September period, we did see a rallying of the four hour performance, although we did not meet our plan, it was 78.1 per cent for the four hour standard, against the plan of 80.3 per cent and unfortunately in October, we've seen a fall back again."
NHS England bosses hoped to see trusts dealing with 78 per cent of patients within the four hour standard by March 2025.
North East and North Cumbria dealt with 77.2 of patients within four hours in October, "so we're starting to see pressure build in the urgent care system" Ms Myers said.
It follows the news that flu cases are rising earlier this year as well as calls from North Cumbria Integrated Care to get vaccinated.
Ms Myers said: "In relation to the 12 hour waits in department, which is obviously a key safety measure that we like to keep an eye on, reasonable performance in September, very close to our plan and much better than the national benchmark at just four per cent of patients waiting."
However, she said that the figure has also "deteriorated" in October to six per cent.
Members of the board heard that the region's NHS bosses "have some concerns" about cancer performance in the year to date.
CLICK HERE TO SUBSCRIBE AND SUPPORT TRUSTED LOCAL JOURNALISM
Ms Myers said: "We are seeing some challenges there, we're not failing across the board but we've got a bit of turbulence in terms of some months meeting the standards, some not."
"In terms of the latest published data in relation to the 62 day target, six out of eight of our providers did meet their plan for the month of September in the latest data."
NHS trusts are expected to diagnose and treat patients with an urgent referral within 62 days.
Between September 2024 and August 2025, North Cumbria Integrated Care (NCIC) completed the diagnosis and treatment journey with 66.6 per cent of patients, missing its own target of 85 per cent.
NCIC bosses have redirected funds to address issues with performance in three key areas: cancer services, referral to treatment waiting times and emergency care waiting times.
Share