Health trusts' emergency services criticised

Lewisham Primary Care Trust (PCT) and Greenwich Teaching PCT came 5th worst and 13th worst respectively out of England’s 151 trusts in a report published by watchdog the Healthcare Commission.

Both were criticised for their poor disabled facilities, while Lewisham PCT received a low score in a category looking at the percentage of out-of-hours GP phone calls which were engaged or abandoned.

It was also labelled as “least well performing” in terms of the time it takes for ambulance crews to hand over patients to hospital A&E departments.

Greenwich Teaching PCT’s out-of-hours GP services were criticised for failing to stock enough medication.

However, it was praised for getting its out-of-hours patients to GPs by 8am the following day.

A Lewisham PCT spokesman said: “We are disappointed by the results of this report.

“We will be working over the next few weeks to develop a robust action plan with existing service providers and local clinical leads to address some of the concerns highlighted.”

A London Ambulance Service spokesman said: “An ambulance turnaround time is measured from arrival at hospital to a crew becoming available to respond to another call.

“Turnaround times at Lewisham Hospital are in fact in line with the overall London-wide average and we work closely with the hospital to provide the best possible care to the patients we take there.”

Karim Jan-Mohammed, chairman of Greenwich Teaching PCT’s professional executive committee, said: “The Healthcare Commission’s report echoes the case for change which was developed for A Picture of Health.”

He added: “We want to reduce the need for many patients to attend A&E departments at all, by improving the care available out of hospitals and closer to people’s homes, especially for our patients with long-term conditions.”

Assessors from the Healthcare Commission conducted their research between April and September last year.

To see the report in full, visit healthcarecommission.org.uk