Warwick Hospital is back on track for A&E targets

Monitor has closed ts investigation into South Warwickshire NHS Foundation Trust - which runs Warwick and Stratford Hospitals and the Central Rehabilitation Unit - after the trust took action to reduce waiting times in A&E as well as the amount of time patients have to wait for planned treatment.

The regulator had opened an investigation in June because the trust had failed to meet the four-hour A&E target five out of eight times - but it is now meeting its target to see 95 per cent of patients within four hours.

Monitor has also concluded that the trust has addressed the issues that caused it to fail to meet the national target of seeing patients for planned treatment within 18 weeks.

The trust’s chief executive, Glen Burley, said at the time that emergency admissions had increased by more than five per cent over the past two years due to an increase in south Warwckshire’s elderly population. He said that additional wards were being considered at Warwick Hospital, as well as new agreements with GP commissioners.

Following the investigation, Laura Mills, senior regional manager for Monitor, said: “We welcome the news that patients in south Warwickshire no longer have lengthy waits to be seen when they go to A&E or for planned treatment. The trust will now return to being regulated using our normal regime.”