PATIENTS in Crawley have to endure some of the longest waiting times for referrals in the country, according to new figures.
Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust, which runs East Surrey and Crawley hospitals,was the fifth worst for waiting times out of 227 Trusts in England.
More than 30 per cent of patients have to wait longer than 18 weeks and five per cent waited for longer than 35 weeks, according to the Department of Health figures.
Meanwhile the number of West Sussex patients who waited longer than 18 weeks for referrals has risen by 31 per cent since May 2010.
Referral to Treatment Time (RTT) is the peroid taken for a patient to be seen by a consultant following GP referral.
Ninety-five per cent of patients should be seen by a consultant within 18 weeks, according to the NHS constitution.
Crawley MP Henry Smith, who infamously described East Surrey’s A&E department as ‘crap’, said: “I am shocked and concerned that yet again East Surrey Hospital has made the headlines for all the wrong reasons. Unacceptable waiting times for some Crawley patients illustrates what I have been saying for almost a decade now, that the Redhill based facility can’t cope with the extra patient pressure ever since departments were closed in Crawley. Many of the previous ‘target’s imposed on the NHS sounded good but were easily abused, for example with people being wheeled in and out of units to ‘re-set’ the waiting clock.
Cllr Brenda Smith, Crawley Labour Group leader, said: “These figures are very disturbing. For patients and their families to wait for months and months is a deeply upsetting and frustrating.
“The Tory-led Government have broken promise after promise on the NHS. Waiting times dramatically increased, funding cut, countless new red tape initiatives which prevent nurses doing what they are trained for and want to do, which is looking after and caring for patients.
“Perhaps our MP Henry Smith can explain after years of promising the residents of Crawley a new hospital and new NHS services why he has failed to deliver on his pledge?”
Dr Amit Bhargava, Chair of the Crawley Clinical Commissioning Group, said: “We are committed to making improvements in performance and quality of care for patients in Crawley and this includes keeping waiting times low.
“As an emerging Clinical Commissioning Group, we are working alongside NHS Sussex, to support the local hospitals to ensure patients are seen as quickly as possible.
“We are all working together across the region to treat those patients who have been waiting longer than we would like for treatment, and there are robust plans in place to provide extra capacity which will ensure that the waiting time standards are met over the coming months.”
A spokesman for Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust said: “We are working closely with our PCT partners to achieve a sustainable solution to the challenges in meeting 18 week waiting times.
“The 18 week performance target is closely linked to that of overall trust capacity, which we are addressing. The new modular wards, due to be completed later this month, will enable us to protect our elective beds, which are used for scheduled surgery.
“In addition, there are further initiatives that support our improvements, including the opening of the Day Surgery Unit in November 2011 – an 8-bedded unit dedicated to providing patients who need day surgery with their own bed space. This enabled us to increase day case rates and reduce the need for in patient beds.”