IMPROVEMENTS are being seen in performance and waiting times at North Cumbria's acute NHS trust, as leaders announce investments that aim to eliminate overcrowding and facilitate faster access to care.
Vanessa Connor, deputy chief operating officer, informed directors about the improvements at the trust's latest board meeting on Wednesday March 25.
She said: "We've talked a lot about urgent emergency care and the challenges we've had, particularly in terms of making some of those improvements in the time that we need, particularly around recruitment of the UTC etc."
Ms Connor said: "We've also had a number of challenges over the last few months, particularly with things like industrial action, winter pressures... we've had outbreaks that all challenge our urgent and emergency care, down to our patient flow challenges.
"However, we have also made some strong improvements so I do want to highlight that.
"If we can go back to October/November when we made the decision around investments and recovery, our four hour performance in November was down to 57.3. We're currently at 62.3, so there has been some improvement there."
In November, 12.6 per cent of patients attending North Cumbria Integrated Care's (NCIC) Accident and Emergency departments, were waiting 12 hours - a circumstance trusts seek to avoid.
But recent data has seen an improvement, with 8.2 per cent of patients waiting 12 hours at A&E.
Ms Connor said: "And our latest national ranking for our 12 hour, we're 47 out of 118 trusts, so that is quite a significant improvement."
However, she acknowledged: "We need to do a lot more."
Whitehaven and Workington MP Josh MacAlister and Carlisle MP Julie Minns wrote to health minister Wes Streeting on March 17 calling for specialist support for North Cumbria's health trust.
They recognised the improvements NCIC has made under the current leadership, but called for support from NHS England to accelerate the trust's improvement journey.
The deputy COO told directors that within planned care, such as elective surgeries and non-urgent procedures, the trust has seen "some great improvements."
She said: "That's where we've really been able to mobilise a lot of the additional resource."
Planned care has faced its challenges, theatre has faced staffing issues and the national shortage of bone cement "was particularly significant" for NCIC.
The shortage in Heraeus medical bone cement meant that the trust was forced to cancel nearly 30 orthopaedic patients, impacting referral-to-treatment (RTT) waiting times, the meeting heard.
However, Ms Connor said: "to give some good news, our 18-week RTT from the end of October was at 53.2 and we're currently at 58.81."
NCIC has also seen a marked improvement in its waiting list.
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Ms Connor said: "Our waiting list size has reduced from 39,644 in October down to 37,032. We've reduced the entire waiting list by 2,612. I think that's really significant and that is going to put us in a better footprint for sustainability moving forwards."
NCIC approved four business cases at the meeting, investments which will aim to address the pressures that cause delays in emergency medicine.
Interim CEO Trudie Davies said that improvements in performance data would not have been possible without staff changing how they work.
The Government announced on March 25 that NCIC is one of five trusts set to receive intensive improvement support.
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