Bosses take bug action

HEALTH bosses are set to take action against the serious infection cDiff as cases among Oldham patients increase.

Latest figure show the number of cases so far with year is 18 more than expected, with 70 against the 52 predicted.

Executive director of finance, Steve Sutcliffe, said : “We take every case seriously.”

Other areas where performance is falling below expectations is in the number of people treated in hospital within 18 weeks of referral.

Figures for August show show 82 per cent of admitted and 97 per cent of non-admitted patients were treated within 18 weeks, against a target of 90 per cent.

Mr Sutcliffe added: “This has been a particularly difficult target to achieve, we were below target at the start of the year.

“There has been very poor improvement over the last six months.”

He also highlighted an “astronomical rise” in the number of Oldham patients waiting longer than six weeks for diagnostic tests, with the longest waits for CT and MRI scans.

Almost one in 10 Oldham patients waited longer than six weeks between April and August, compared with just over 2 per cent of patients nationally.