8:24am Wednesday 19th December 2007
By Alex Lewis
A FLAGSHIP new surgery centre in St Albans has been overwhelmed with serious problems with hundreds of operations cancelled, new hospital chief Jan Filochowski has admitted.
The Elective Care Centre, which opened at St Albans City Hospital in September to treat patients across west Hertfordshire, was already struggling to cope by the time of its grand opening by Mayor Kate Morris on October 12.
Badly planned and understaffed, the centre was seeing as many as five per cent of procedures routinely cancelled.
Mr Filochowski, an NHS troubleshooter appointed last month as chief executive of the West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust, said: "This is a good facility, but it has had really serious problems - that became apparent almost immediately.
"People said we had teething problems, but I realised it was much more than that."
Thanks to his efforts to recruit new theatre staff, cancellation rates have recently improved to 2.5 per cent, but that still means around 20 patients a week are being sent home untreated.
And with theatre staff in short supply nationally, it could be as long as three months before the centre is working as it should.
Ironically, the Elective Care Centre was opened partly to avoid cancellations by separating planned operations from emergency care.
Mr Filochowski said: "We did not think through the way it would work.
"We did not staff it enough - we were so concerned with saving money. A number of staff from Watford or Hemel Hempstead decided they did not want to work in St Albans and we did not allow for that."
Managers have found themselves desperately ringing round to staff the next day's operations, spending huge sums on expensive agency workers.
And with the trust under government pressure to perform all cancelled operations within 28 days, it has been forced to spend even more money transferring patients to private hospitals.
St Albans MP Anne Main said: "The real problem here has been a schedule which is too ambitious, causing operations to be cancelled due to staff shortages.
"The facility is excellent, but without the staff it is unable to fulfill its potential.
"Undoubtedly, staff have become demoralised by this situation and it is welcome that the new management seem aware of the problems.
"I understand that the trust now intends to recruit more full-time staff to ensure that this excellent facility has the capacity it needs and that less operations are cancelled.
"I am pleased that Mr Filochowski seems prepared to take a robust attitude to this and own up to the problems, face into them, and take the tough decisions to deal with this situation."
Mr Filochowski, who has been appointed on an interim basis after a devastating Healthcare Commission report led to the resignation of his predecessor David Law, is insisting bosses planning new facilities in Watford learn from the St Albans debacle.
He said: "When we open the new acute admissions unit in Watford, we have to do it properly and plan it.
"There will not be another St Albans - that is a promise."
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