This story was first published in digitalhealth.net
Stoke and Stafford hospital trust face £9m fine
Stoke and Stafford hospital trust is facing a financial penalty of up to £9 million for failing to meet government targets.
The University Hospital of North Midlands failed to achieve seeing 95 per cent of A&E patients within four hours last year.
Commenting on the news, acting chief executive Robert Courteney-Harris claimed the failure was due to an increase in demand, particularly as the population continued to age.
He argued: "It's not as straightforward as looking at the plain numbers. The staff have been working tremendously hard over the last three months and sometimes they just get tired.
“As long as these fines are reinvested in patient care, it is going round a circle. Our big priority in A&E is how we flow people through the system and how we get them out [of hospital].
"We need to deal with that by supporting people in their homes and getting them through the hospital quickly."
Courteney-Harris insisted he was confident that the trust would reach its target by the end of 2016.
He said: “This year there have been issues around our ability to do enough work in the hospitals based on an elective basis. Its been crowded by emergency work. We have very clear plans going into next year."
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