A prestigious teaching hospital trust has temporarily restricted access to its outpatient cardiology service for out of area referrals, a leaked letter has revealed.
Cambridge University Hospitals Foundation Trust said the move was driven by its waiting list for routine cardiology outpatients rising by 50 patients a week and staff shortages. A leaked letter from the trust and its lead commissioner Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Clinical Commissioning Group said it made the move to avoid “potential safety concerns associated with excessively increased waiting times”.
The trust said the move was to ‘bring waiting times back to a safe level.’ The trust has told commissioners outside its main Cambridgeshire catchment area that their GP practices should send patients to “a different cardiology provider with immediate effect”
Full story in the Health Service Journal 1 March 2016