BARNSLEY Hospital rose to the top of the national league table for its performance in dealing with accident and emergency patients within time limits set by the NHS.
During September, the hospital met the notoriously difficult four hour deadline for seeing patients on 96.3 per cent of occasions, putting the hospital ahead of the 95 per cent threshold set out under health service rules and also making its performance for the month the best in the country.
Hospital staff have been told by medical director Simon Enright the result was ‘absolutely fantastic’ during a team briefing presentation.
Hospitals nationally have struggled to meet the four hour deadline for seeing patients who present at A&E, due to rising demand and pressures on the hospital system.
Earlier this year, the NHS announced the four hour target may be replaced amid concerns it has become an outdated measure of success, but it has become one which hospitals have found increasingly challenging to meet.
When a review of the target was revealed earlier this year, alongside other proposed changes to waiting times for medical help, it was suggested a new formula could be introduced during 2020.
* Provided by the Local Democracy Reporting Service
