HOSPITALS in East Lancashire look set to fare badly in the Healthcare Commission’s annual assessment scores.

Bosses at East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs the Royal Blackburn and Burnley General Hospital, will be given a zero score for emergency waiting times after missing its target of 98 per cent of patients waiting less than four hours to be treated in the emergency department and urgent care centres.

And it will also lose points for cancelled operations, with more patients turned away over December and January, and too many outpatients waiting longer than three months for appointments.

Director of operations Val Bertenshaw said it was hoped new measures, including the surgical triage unit opened last month at the Royal Blackburn Hospital, along with more planned operations being carried out at Burnley, would mean big improvements in the hospitals’ performance.

In a report to the trust board, she said: “The four-hour waiting time in A and E and its subsequent impact on waiting times and delivery of planned activity remains a key risk to the trust.

“Increased lengths of stays for emergency admissions us also impacting significantly on bed capacity.“ But she said the hospitals’ clinical performance was still good, with lower death and complication rates than other similar-sized trusts, and low rates of MRSA.

Clostridium difficile rates are being monitored closely after a rise in the number of cases over the past few months, with policies on cleaning and antibiotic prescribing under review in partnership with the Health Protection Agency.