IPSWICH Hospital is still not seeing many of its patients quickly enough, according to latest figures.Board directors meeting today were due to discuss how admissions had reached record levels, which led to other peoples' treatment being delayed.

By Tracey Sparling

IPSWICH Hospital is still not seeing many of its patients quickly enough, according to latest figures.

Board directors meeting today were due to discuss how admissions had reached record levels, which led to other peoples' treatment being delayed.

By the end of November there was a 4.8 per cent increase in emergency admissions and a 12.3pc increase in the number of emergency admissions to Medicine and Elderly Services, compared to the same month in 2000.

Chris Dooley, director of finance and performance in his report to the board: "These activity figures demonstrate the pressure of workload faced by the trust and its staff.

"The figures also conceal significant variations on a daily basis."

The result was that 67pc of outpatients waited 13 weeks or less for an appointment. The Government standard is 90pc.

Everyone should be seen within 30 minutes of their appointment time, but this only happened with 73pc.

Everyone arriving at A&E should be seen and assessed for treatment within 15 minutes of arrival, and this happened for 96pc.

Eighteen patients waited more than four hours for a bed, and four for over six hours - when the hospital was on 'red alert' with just a handful of beds free. Patients should only wait less than two hours for a bed.

There were 7,538 patients on the inpatient/daycase waiting list which was 1,384 (22.5pc) behind the waiting list plan.

The hospital managed to achieve its target of having no patients waiting more than 15 months for treatment at the end of November, four months early.

There are now 214 people waiting more than 12 months, and the hospital hopes to cut that to zero by the end of March.