Chief Minister Allan Bell said he believes steps being taken to resolve problems at Noble’s Hospital are starting to turn things around.
He made his comments after the West Midlands independent review team published the fourth of 13 reports, revealing that some cancer patients were seeing diagnosis delayed by up to a year.
Inspectors found widespread evidence of ‘re-prioritising’ of urgent suspected cancer referrals from GPs. Some were re-categorised as ‘routine’, including some referrals for patients with imaging reports indicating suspected cancer.
‘For some patients this practice was delaying diagnosis by up to a year,’ the report says.
Health and Social Care Minister Howard Quayle said his department was already taking steps to address identified areas of concern including cancer care.
The Chief Minister said: ‘When we first called in the West Midlands team to review the hospital we asked specifically for them to cover all aspects of service provision and produce a warts and all report for us.
‘This was because it was very important to fully understand where the deficiencies lie so we take steps to improve the situation.
‘We made it clear our intention was to make the reports public and that’s exactly what we’ve done. Obviously it’s disappointing when we have these areas identified in a negative way but it’s not altogether surprising.
‘It gives us a clear opportunity to take steps to rectify the situation and we have started to turn things around at the hospital.’
He said: ‘I think the steps we have taken over the last two years in restructuring the management at the hospital have put us on the right footing and are addressing many of the problems we have identified.
‘It’s not going to resolve everything overnight but I do believe we are on the right path at the moment.’
Mr Bell said there was not yet an overall cost for addressing all the areas identified by the West Midlands team.
‘It will take many months before we see the final picture but we are doing our best to make funds available wherever possible,’ he said.
Mr Bell also defended the visit to New Zealand by the Health Minister and his chief executive Mark Charters to examine the integrated healthcare model operated at Canterbury District Health Board, based in Christchurch. The pair set off on Saturday on the firt leg of the journey.
He said: ‘We have to move forward in health provision. We need to look outwards, We’ve got to learn from other people. From time to time the Health Minister and key members of staff will have to travel. We’ve got to explore every possible opportunity even if some ideas are discounted.’