Latest news with #waitingtimes
Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Orthopaedic centre to 'significantly' cut wait times
A specialist surgical centre has opened which aims to "significantly reduce" waiting times for orthopaedic patients across the region. The Sulis Orthopaedic Centre (SOC), located in Peasedown St John, just outside Bath, will perform an additional 3,000 planned orthopaedic operations on NHS patients every year. It will help to significantly reduce waiting times for many patients lined up for operations, which include life-changing hip and knee replacements. The SOC is a collaboration between Sulis and three local hospital trusts, known collectively as BSW Hospitals Group, and includes the Great Western Hospital in Swindon, the Royal United Hospital in Bath and the Salisbury Foundation Trust. Cara Charles-Barks, the chief executive of BSW Hospitals Group, said: "We are really pleased to see the Sulis Orthopaedic Centre open its doors to patients. "Not only will it make a real difference by reducing waiting times for orthopaedic surgery, but it will also help to safeguard our services from the increase in demand that we expect to see in the future." The new centre will free up capacity at existing NHS facilities, with patients being cared for at Sulis immediately before and after their operations. The surgeries and additional pre and post-operative appointments will take place at their local NHS hospital, as before. Simon Milner, hospital director Sulis Hospital, said: "The opening of the Sulis Orthopaedic Centre, marks a significant and much-anticipated milestone. "Working in partnership with the NHS enables us to give back to the local community in meaningful ways and we're excited to pioneer a new, collaborative approach to healthcare that benefits everyone." Between April 2024 and March 2025, 750 operations were performed on NHS patients being treated at the RUH, using Sulis' surgical theatres. Follow BBC Somerset on Facebook and X. Send your story ideas to us on email or via WhatsApp on 0800 313 4630. Radiology department marks 50 years of advancement Patients 'feel safe' in hospital's wards, says watchdog Salisbury maternity services rated as 'good' Bath and North East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire Together
BBC News
a day ago
- Business
- BBC News
New orthopaedic centre to cut waiting times in Bath and Wiltshire
A specialist surgical centre has opened which aims to "significantly reduce" waiting times for orthopaedic patients across the Sulis Orthopaedic Centre (SOC), located in Peasedown St John, just outside Bath, will perform an additional 3,000 planned orthopaedic operations on NHS patients every will help to significantly reduce waiting times for many patients lined up for operations, which include life-changing hip and knee SOC is a collaboration between Sulis and three local hospital trusts, known collectively as BSW Hospitals Group, and includes the Great Western Hospital in Swindon, the Royal United Hospital in Bath and the Salisbury Foundation Trust. Cara Charles-Barks, the chief executive of BSW Hospitals Group, said: "We are really pleased to see the Sulis Orthopaedic Centre open its doors to patients. "Not only will it make a real difference by reducing waiting times for orthopaedic surgery, but it will also help to safeguard our services from the increase in demand that we expect to see in the future." The new centre will free up capacity at existing NHS facilities, with patients being cared for at Sulis immediately before and after their surgeries and additional pre and post-operative appointments will take place at their local NHS hospital, as Milner, hospital director Sulis Hospital, said: "The opening of the Sulis Orthopaedic Centre, marks a significant and much-anticipated milestone. "Working in partnership with the NHS enables us to give back to the local community in meaningful ways and we're excited to pioneer a new, collaborative approach to healthcare that benefits everyone."Between April 2024 and March 2025, 750 operations were performed on NHS patients being treated at the RUH, using Sulis' surgical theatres.
BBC News
3 days ago
- General
- BBC News
Wiltshire Police cuts 101 call answer time
A police force says the length of time it takes to reach one of its 101 call operators has dropped by more than two thirds in the last April 2024, Wiltshire Police said it took an of average 16 seconds to get through to them, whereas in March this year that figure had reduced to just five force says they have implemented solutions to cut waiting times and deploy help sooner, including hiring more staff and increasing training. The national target is to answer 90% of calls in less than 10 seconds. Wiltshire Police said it has been at or around that figure for the last six months. The force said call wait times did spike to 37 seconds in June - traditionally seen as one of the busiest times of the subsequently launched an improvement plan to help improve the numbers, conducting quality assurance audits and recruiting new has also tracked the overall experience of staff in the contact centre and has retained a higher number of operators, boosting the number of experienced staff. 'Hard graft' There have also been improvements to the amount of time it takes to answer 999 calls, the force added. Each month, the call centre receives around 10,000 calls to the non-emergency number, alongside 8,000 calls to 999 for immediate Insp Allen Lumley, part of the command team, said: "We want to make sure that we provide a sustained focus on putting the caller at the heart of what we do -staying empathetic to each and every caller."It has taken a long time to turn around our performance because of the time it takes to embed these things and start to bear the fruit of our hard graft."We will continue to work hard to enhance our performance and solidify the efforts made this far."
BBC News
5 days ago
- Business
- BBC News
NI healthcare 'reset' needed to avoid year-on-year funding deficit
A total reset of the healthcare system in Northern Ireland is needed to avoid a year-on-year funding deficit of hundreds of millions of pounds, the new permanent secretary of the Department of Health (DoH) has is currently a £600m deficit in the health budget - a third of which is earmarked for the annual pay Farrar said he has "every reason to believe" Northern Ireland's health and social care system "could be fantastic", but said there are significant ahead of the DoH publishing an implementation plan for elective care framework, Mr Farrar said "nothing is off the table" when it comes to cost-saving measures. "The challenges mainly are expressed as the money that we have available and the challenge that we have in terms of waiting times for care - that's the big one that I think people are concerned about," he DoH is "determined" to get waiting times "to a place where people aren't being damaged", he March 2025, the Health Minister Mike Nesbitt said there would be a "cocktail of delivery" to begin tackling Northern Ireland's hospital waiting DoH is expected to publish "detailed plans and assessments on the financial pressures this year and the measures that will be needed in both the short and medium terms" in the coming weeks. 'Holding them to account' Following a series of major building issues in the Belfast Health Trust, Mr Farrar said individual trusts needed to take more responsibility and be accountable when things go wrong."[There] isn't any reason why we should accept that these big capital projects need to slip in the way that they have been doing," he Farrar also said the culture within clinical teams within the trust had to follows an internal review into the culture within the cardiology unit at the Royal Victoria Hospital, which the Health Minister Mike Nesbitt has described as "appalling" and "entirely unacceptable"."The responsibility there lies with the leadership of the trust - I'm looking to them first and foremost to deal with that," Mr Farrar senior civil servant added he would be "giving them space to put this right" and he would be "holding them to account"."Inevitably if we don't see the progress that we would hope to make… then the special measures regime would come into play." A former senior leader in the NHS in England, Mr Farrar took up the interim role in April, replacing Peter May who has retired from the Northern Ireland Civil Farrar was previously the chief executive of the NHS Confederation and Head of Primary Care at the Department of Health in London. He has also served as chief executive for health authorities in North West England, Yorkshire and has recently worked as a management consultant specialising in healthcare. In Northern Ireland, he has worked with health service leaders and has also worked internationally on healthcare in the Middle East, Japan, Russia, US, Spain and Australia.
BreakingNews.ie
22-05-2025
- Automotive
- BreakingNews.ie
TD calls for RSA to appear in front of Transport Committee over wait for driving tests
A Fine Gael TD has called for the Road Safety Authority (RSA) to come before the Transport Committee on the significant increase in waiting times for driving tests. Michael Murphy, the Chair of the Oireachtas Transport Committee, has urged the RSA to outline plans to address the issue of waiting times when they come before the Transport Committee. Advertisement This comes as new centres, more testers and extended opening hours are the ways the RSA plans on cutting wait times for driving tests. Tallaght in Dublin and Navan in Meath are among the centres with the longest lists however, wait times have already begun to come down. The RSA aims to have average wait times for a test at 10 weeks, down from 25 weeks last month and the current wait time of 22 weeks. In a statement, Mr Murphy said: 'I welcome that the RSA has today released an action plan on how they will cut waiting times, but we need to examine how we got into this position in the first place with an average waiting time of 27 weeks. Advertisement 'The RSA has accepted my invitation to come before the committee and I hope they will address questions on the timeline of how this plan will be rolled out. We need details of when these changes will be put in place. 'Plans for accelerating training for new testers, expanding testing hours, and updating the booking system are all welcome, but we need a guarantee that these actions work. 'A 10-week target is very welcome, but we need to see how realistic it is to have this in place by September. 'People waiting for a test are beyond frustrated with these delays. The waiting times to undergo a driving test are really proving to be a barrier to people trying to take up work or education. Advertisement 'We want to see waiting times back to an average of 10 weeks and I welcome any proposals to do this, but we also need to hear from the RSA how they will prevent this backlog from happening again. It's completely unacceptable that waiting times ever reached that level. 'I look forward to working with the RSA and speaking with them directly when they appear before the Oireachtas Transport Committee on how they can implement their plans to cut waiting times',
