Fears that ‘fast, slow, stop’ operation scheme may have damaged Warwick Hospital’s reputation

Primary Care Trust NHS Warwickshire set up its ‘fast, slow, stop’ system for patients needing knee and hip operations and ear, nose throat and eye surgery between November and April.

The trust, which runs GP surgeries and commissions operations, says 1,800 patients were ‘fast-tracked’, but Warwick Hospital fears delayed cases could reflect badly on its reputation.

It said it only recently received some referrals ‘paused’ by NHS Warwickshire, which it may have to report as breaches of the health service’s target to treat patients within 18 weeks.

A spokeswoman for South Warwickshire Foundation Trust, which runs the hospital, said: “We are concerned that this could reflect badly on the performance and reputation of the trust and hence want to make it clear that we are committed to treat patients within the required timescales and to our normal high clinical standards when they are properly referred to us.

“Our orthopaedic service is one of the best in the country with the lowest average length of stay following a knee or hip operation.”

Under the ‘fast, slow, stop’ scheme 810 patents had treatment delayed and 281 patients still needed to be treated this week.

The hospital said it had met additional demand using all operating theatre slots despite refurbishment work. It said it would be increasing capacity with a state of the art keyhole surgery theatre in the autumn.

In response to the criticism, NHS Warwickshire chief executive Stephen Jones admitted lessons had been learned. He said the ‘fast, slow, stop’ scheme did have a “financial context”, but also tried to balance demand with clinical need and had led to 1,800 patients being ‘fast-tracked’.

He said the increase in referrals came both from GPs and from referrals made between hospital departments, leading to complex problems with effects across the whole health economy.

He added: “NHS Warwickshire’s initiative sought to address that problem by tackling it head on, but inevitably there have been financial consequences from the initiative which the whole health economy has shared.

“At the top of all of our priorities throughout was the need for any patient with a clinically urgent need to be treated quickly and we have seen excellent co-operation between GPs and our hospitals on this. We realise that some patients affected by the ‘slow stream’ of referrals have seen delays in their treatment and we are working hard to ensure these people are now seen as quickly as possible.”