Royal Surrey Surpassing National 18 Weeks Target

The Royal Surrey County Hospital has surpassed the national NHS 18 weeks waiting time target, which came into effect in January 2009. 

The new standard was introduced to ensure that all NHS patients in England begin their treatment within 18 weeks of referral from their GP.  The Royal Surrey met the target five months early in August 2008.

The criteria states that hospitals must treat 90% of admitted patients and 95% of non-admitted within 18 weeks.  The figures for March show that the Royal Surrey is treating 92% of admitted patients and 97% of non-admitted patients within 18 weeks.

Some departments at the Royal Surrey are excelling at the 18 weeks target.  The pain management department treated 100% of its patients within 18 weeks in March and the oral and maxillo facial, general surgery and ophthalmology units were also extremely successful, all treating over 98% of patients within 18 weeks or less.

Director of Nursing and Operations, Sue Lewis, said:

"Everyone at the Royal Surrey has worked extremely hard to reduce waiting times for patients.  We have made a number of changes for patients to ensure we are eliminating any delays in receiving their diagnosis and treatment.  No diagnostic waiting times are longer than six weeks and we have introduced one-stop clinics for some conditions so that patients only have to visit the hospital once.  On top of this we have also added operating slots at evenings and weekends to help reduce waiting times. 

"Although we have already significantly reduced waiting times we will continue to work on further improvements and ensure that we maintain an efficient service for our patients.

"In common with many NHS hospitals across England, the only area where the 18 weeks target is not being met is trauma and orthopaedics.  We are working hard to rectify this problem and we are confident that we can meet the 18 weeks target for trauma and orthopaedics by the end of June"