Fines for Missing Waiting Time Targets Removed

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Waiting time targets

The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, the UK’s largest and oldest surgical College, has today welcomed the announcement that fines for missing waiting time targets in A&E, cancer and routine operations have been removed for some trusts.

Speaking about the announcement RCSEd President Mr Michael Lavelle-Jones, said:

"The College, and our membership across the UK, support absolutely the concept of targets in all hospitals. None of us who work in healthcare can countenance unnecessary and unacceptable delays for our patients, whose safety and care we hold uppermost. However, we also recognise that imposing punitive measures on those hospitals which miss those targets, and which are already under significant financial pressure, creates a vicious circle where trusts will continue to miss targets because they simply do not have the funds to put in improvement measures. 

"The measures announced today are a positive move for patients and for the NHS as a whole.”

ENDS

About The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh

RCSEd (www.rcsed.ac.uk) was first incorporated in as the Barber Surgeons of Edinburgh in 1505, and is one of the oldest surgical corporations in the world with memberships approaching 25,000 over 100 countries worldwide. The College promotes the highest standards of surgical and dental practice through its examinations, and is also increasingly involved in the provision of surgical training and education, offering the UK’s only Faculty of Surgical Trainers, open to all those with an interest in surgical training regardless of College affiliation. RCSEd’s commercial enterprises offer conferencing and event facilities at The Playfair Building, Symposium Hall and Quincentenary Hall, and runs the Ten Hill Place Hotel.

Find RCSEd on Twitter www.twitter.com/RCSEd and on Facebook www.facebook.com/rcsed

The College is based at Nicolson Street, Edinburgh, EH8 9DW and can be reached on (0)131 527 1600 or mail@rcsed.ac.uk.

For communications and media enquiries contact the Communications Department on (0)131 527 1594 or comms@rcsed.ac.uk