Walsall Manor Hospital fined £850k over A&E waiting times
Walsall Manor Hospital has been fined more than £850,000 in under a year for the delays patients faced waiting in A&E and with arriving ambulance crews, latest figures have revealed.
The hospital's managing trust was hit with the penalties from April to January, and they could further rise by the end of the financial year as the hospital continues to deal with a high numbers of patients.
The Manor has continually struggled to reach the four hour national A&E target and has been hit with a fine of £547,600 from Walsall Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) so far during the period.
And despite almost 300 fewer ambulances being recorded in January, in comparison to the previous month, there was a fall in people handed over from crews within 15 minutes.
This amounted to 58 per cent.
A report to heath bosses said there was a computer glitch which meant some handovers not being recorded on two days.
Overall it has been hit with a fine of £306,600 for the time it has taken for patients to be transferred to the hospital over the ten month period.
A report from Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust's head of finance and performance, Ian Baines to the board said they had continued to face 'significant periods of sustained high admissions' at A&E throughout January.
There was an average of 61 admissions a day in January, one of the hospital's busiest ever periods.
He said: "There were six days during the month when over 90 ambulances arrived at the department with one of these days recorded over 100.
"High levels of admissions combined with high numbers of clinically stable patients resulted in limited bed capacity which impacts patient waiting times in A&E."
The CCG says contractual fines are only one part of a number of ways in which it works with the trust to tackle waiting times.
The fines are re-invested in the health system to improve services for Walsall patients.
Walsall Manor has seen more patients coming from Staffordshire over the last few years, which is set to further rise in the future.
In a bid to ease pressures around £3.5 million is being invested in more than 80 nurses and 35 clinical support workers.
It has been agreed by the health trust which will look to Ireland to recruit the registered nurses it needs with the aim of being in place by the autumn.
