Farron welcomes positive improvement to hospital trust outpatient appointments backlog

South Lakes MP, Tim Farron has welcomed news from the University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Trust, that most of the patients affected by delays in follow-up outpatient appointments have now been seen thanks to an effective collaboration and drive by staff at the trust's hospitals.

The trust, which has faced a series of reviews by health regulators Monitor and the Care Quality Commission (CQC), and has seen a drastic change in leadership over the past few months with the appointment at Sir David Henshaw as interim Chair of the Board and Eric Morton as the interim Chief Executive, has previously been criticised over its failure to follow up on outpatient appointments, with approximately 19,000 patients affected by the delays.

UHMBT reported this morning that "All of the urgent and priority patients were seen by the end of last year and most of the remaining patients that needed an appointment have now been seen."

Thanks to the hard work of hospital staff, who have put on nearly 1,100 additional clinics over the past few months, there are now just 300 patients who still need to be seen, which includes those who were unable to commit to the original dates and those who it has not been possible to reach yet.

Commenting, Tim said: "I am relieved to see the first signs of real improvement within the Hospital Trust and I would like to thank staff across all the hospitals for working so hard to clear the backlog and ensure patients are receiving the attention and treatment that they deserve.

"Now it is important that we continue to work with Monitor and the CQC to build on this achievement to ensure that we get this trust back on track - providing the best possible care for all patients across the Morecambe Bay area."