Longer waiting times for patients

It was revealed last week that Hastings and Rother patients have to wait longer than anyone else in the country for tests such as MRI and CT scans, or preliminary investigation for cancer. More than a third are waiting longer than the Government’s projected 18 weeks.

This means a long delay between initial health worries and actual treatment if necessary.

Hastings and Rother went from having just three patients waiting in April 2010 to 1,255 in April this year, the highest increase in the country.

A third of hospital trusts in Britain are now, since NHS targets were scrapped, not hitting the limit of treating patients within 18 weeks of referral by their GP.

This week Mr Barker said he was “increasingly concerned” that locally we are out of step with the rest of the country.

He said: “Given that, despite the difficult financial situation, the Coalition Government has prioritised and safeguarded spending on the National Health Service, local people have the right to expect better than this. These concerns underpin the need to reform the NHS to deliver a better service to patients but in the meantime I am seeking a credible plan to turn this around from the East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust management.”

Frank Sims, NHS Sussex Director, gave this response: “We have put in place additional sessions in diagnostics such as CT scans, MRI scans and ultrasound and I have every confidence that within the next few weeks this will have addressed the issue of patients waiting longer than we would like for treatment.”