Scarborough Hospital trust making ‘good progress’ in reducing patient waiting times after thousands of appointments rescheduled
The NHS trust that runs Scarborough Hospital is making ‘good progress’ in reducing patient waiting times after thousands of appointments were rescheduled due to strikes.
Strikes at the York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust have led to almost 10,000 appointments being rescheduled since December 2022.
Analysis of NHS England figures by Radar found that 9,603 working days were lost due to strikes and 9,959 appointments were rescheduled, all of which were in acute outpatient or inpatient settings.
A spokesperson for the trust, which runs Scarborough and Bridlington hospitals, said: “During the junior doctor strike action, we prioritised urgent and emergency treatment to protect patient safety and ensure those in life-saving emergencies received the best possible care.
“The trust has a detailed improvement plan and elective recovery plan in place to help us achieve national targets, and we are working closely with ICB colleagues, NHS England, and system partners to deliver this.”
This autumn the BMA’s junior doctors committee in England accepted the Government’s pay offer, with 66 per cent of junior doctors voting in favour of the deal.
Junior doctors have been in dispute over more than a decade of real-terms pay cuts since October 2022, during which time they took 44 days of strike action.
Scarborough and Whitby councillors recently raised concerns about the number of missed hospital appointments in coastal communities.
Members said Scarborough residents who lived in areas with higher levels of poverty appeared to be missing more appointments than residents of more affluent neighbourhoods.
The trust said the average rate of patients not attending appointments across its sites was currently 5.4 per cent, with text reminders recently rolled out.
Commenting on appointments rescheduled due to the industrial action, the spokesperson for the York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust added: “Good progress is being made to reduce the time that patients are waiting for their appointments and procedures.”