Posted on 12/30/2006 2:02:44 PM PST by grundle
A hospital has lost nearly £2.5m worth of funding because it treated too many patients.
Nurses and doctors at Ipswich Hospital had done so well in meeting their waiting lists targets they breached an agreement on how soon people saw consultants.
Some patients were seen with a week rather than the agreed minimum 122 days.
Funding body East Suffolk Primary Care Trusts had introduced the limit to manage demand.
It decided the extra work was too costly and refused to pay the £2.5m bill - Ipswich Hospital is already £16m in the red.
A hospital spokeswoman described the episode as a "local glitch" and said it had no significant implications for hospitals nationally or for NHS funding.
She explained the arrangement was thought to be the best way to ensure no one jumped queues and everyone was waiting a similar length of time.
The spokeswoman said: "We made the agreement on the waiting times since it was thought to be the best way of ensuring that patients were seen on a first come, first served basis and that waiting times were equalised.
"In a number of cases we had breached the agreement - for understandable reasons, because we had spare capacity - and treated patients too quickly."
She said the hospital was working to ensure there are no further mistakes, adding: "The money will still come from the taxpayer - but from one purse not another."
Trust chief executive Carole Taylor-Brown told The Daily Telegraph: "It would be great if we were fully resourced to do everything. But we are given a certain amount for the year."
The Government wants patients to wait no longer than six months before seeing a consultant.
That's certainly what we need in the U.S.
Typical Brits. They can't get anything right. We beat them in two wars; had to save their asses in two other wars; they talk funny, and they like soccer. What do you expect?
Sounds like they need to create more beauracracy to bring the wait time back up to "the agreed minimum 122 days". That should bring the cost and quality of health care at that facility back to the socialiast/communist norm. I heard that Cuba, the premier healthcare center of the world, brought in more Spanish doctors and medicine today for Castro, 12/30/2006. Oh yeah, "Clinton 2008!" /s
I know the socialized medicine of Europe really sucks, but this is so far out there that I'm wondering if it's satire?
MM
Please don't get me wrong, I really love the UK. It's where all my ancestry came from. But from the news articles I read, I have to wonder if Lenin's Tomb has found a new custodian. Perhaps it's media bias, or perhaps the English are undergoing temporary insanity. It's not just one thing; we have coddling of the beheaders, pointy knife amnesty, universal healthcare (that must wait exactly 122 days), and then there's Prince Charles and Red Ken. Also signs in 37 languages, everything except English. One must wonder.
This certainly qualifies for the Hillary Archives Opposition Research Thread, don't you think?
Yes, thanks. Happy New Year.
It doesn't get much scarier than that ... I sure am thrilled to live in a country where my fellow citizens taught pub pols a lesson because they weren't pure enough and instead wound up making this kind of thing more and more likely.
One more time - you take the best you can get and keep hammering on them instead of taking the worst available who will totally ignore your hammering.
#49 not meant for you, Lainey.
No prob... :)
The hip op sounds strange in Britain if someone has an accident and breaks a hip normally they get the op within 3 days because otherwise infection can set in or so I understood.
IF there is some stupid idea, they will come up with it in England first.
My god. This sounds like something out of a bad apocalyptic sci-fi novel.
I think that it sounds strange, too, but it really happened. She fell off the horse in September and wasn't operated on until the first week in December. They just gave her a walker and lots of pain pills.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.