Pendle MP, Gordon Prentice, has described as “disappointing” the Care Quality Commission’s (CQC) performance ratings for the East Lancashire Hospital Trust (ELHT), which were published at the end of last week.

“The fact that the annual rating on Quality of Service and Quality of Financial Management dropped from Excellent/Good in 2007/08 to Fair/Fair in 2008/09 pointed to a problem inside the Hospital Trust,” said the MP.
 
The MP continued: “The Trust's statement that ‘well-documented challenges in reducing patient waiting times and delivering financial balance have meant that the Trust’s overall scores have reduced….’throws little light on the root cause of the problems.  Nor is there any explanation of a plan for improvement beyond, ‘… we are working hard to address the areas identified as needing improvement.’”
 
“It seems to me that the Hospital Trust should be winning over local people by being more forthcoming about its performance and problems. Not only have the operational changes resulting from the re-configuration of services across the Blackburn and Burnley sites led to a succession of issues around Accident & Emergency, but also the CQC investigation identifies financial management concerns.”
 
 “I am meeting Andy Burnham, the Minister for Health, early in November, to discuss the operation of the single site Accident & Emergency service for a population of half a million people here in East Lancashire. These latest ratings from the CQC confirm that the local health service is not out of the woods yet as far as service performance is concerned.”
 
The MP is also meeting the Chief Executive and Chair of the North West Ambulance Service to discuss the transportation of patients to East Lancashire’s A&E department. The MP said: “The Ambulance Trust’s rating of Fair/Good, up from Fair/Fair last year, is reassuring, but  NHS East Lancashire (PCT) commented that, the Category A calls for under 8 minutes and the Category B calls for 19 minutes, were marked as ‘under achieving’. This is concerning.”