St George's in Tooting to receive cash boost (From Your Local Guardian)

St George's in Tooting to receive cash boost

7:30am Saturday 28th January 2012 in Wandsworth

St George's in Tooting is set to receive £2.5m from the NHS after failing to treat one in three patients within the target time.

The Government expects that 90 per cent of patients will have planned procedures done within 18 weeks of being referred by a GP.

But St George's has struggled to achieve this, and last year was forced to pass on patients to other hospitals for treatment after it was revealed 30 per cent of procedures were happening outside the period.

The new one-off funding, from the Government's winter access initiative, was announced at a meeting of NHS South West London on Thursday, January 19.

A spokesman for the hospital said different services and departments would spend the cash in different ways to tackle the backlog.

But she said the Blackshaw Road hospital was tackling waiting lists and had already met the target for December, with treatment for 96 per cent of outpatients and 91.5 per cent of in and day patients coming inside the limit.

She said: “Delivering the 18 week standard for patient appointments is a priority for the trust. We are committed to patient safety and providing high quality care to all our patients at the earliest possible time."