| MP BRIEFED ON SOUTHPORT'S WAITING LISTS |
| Wednesday, 13 June 2007 | |
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The Department of Health are enlisting MPs in the drive to chase waiting lists down. In a new initiative MPs will be provided on a monthly basis with detailed figures on waiting lists in their local area. At a briefing on Thursday provided by the Department of Health on the pefrormance of all local hospitals and PCTs across a range of specialisms, waiting lists for each medical and surgical area are compared to national and regional averages to see if waiting times for Southport residents are longer for Southport areas. In some areas like urology and bladder complaints they are; in other areas such as heart disease they are not. MPs are being asked by the Department of Health to help drive down all waiting lists well below the 18 week national average by asking questions about the slower services.  "This is an excellent initiative." says Southport's MP John Pugh. "For the first time it enables me to check trends and compare them with cases that come to my office. The most stressful time for many patients is the wait between referral and diagnosis and the beginning of tteatment The more the local NHS can reduce the gap, the happier people are. "While all statistics need to be put in context these regular updates are going to flag up problems and help everyone identify bottlenecks and areas for improvement " |