What are people in Bolton saying about Hospital Waiting Times
Earlier this year we asked people to tell us about their experience of waiting for hospital treatment. Covid 19 has placed a huge strain on the NHS and social care and has created a backlog of patients needing treatment at a hospital.
Our report shows what people have told us about their experiences of waiting for hospital care. We shared the findings from the report with Bolton Hospital and they responded to the recommendations in the report. They told us:
- We have made every effort to keep as much surgery as possible going and have continued to perform our cancer, emergency and urgent operations throughout, despite the pressures we have faced.
- We have also worked with the independent sector as much as possible, to maximise the amount of patients we could see, which enabled us to continue to carry out as many procedures as we could away from the hospital site.
- We have contacted every patient who is waiting for treatment to discuss their condition, and the next steps for them, however, we know that many of our patients may be experiencing anxiety, stress and discomfort as a result of their wait.
- Some dedicated resources have been developed to support people to stay as well as possible while they’re waiting and work is ongoing to increase the support available via ORCHA apps for people who are waiting for treatment.
- Some of the feedback people have shared is within our gift to address, especially effective communication with our patients. We will make sure that we continue to communicate with every patient that is waiting longer than expected. We have recently introduced digital letters and a text reminder service to improve the way we communicate with our patients and all patients on our waiting list have been contacted with an update about their surgery.
What people in Bolton are telling us about Hospital Waiting Times
