Special needs children wait four weeks for treatment

7:17pm Wednesday 14th May 2008

CHILDREN with special needs had to wait a year for treatment just 12 months ago - but health bosses have now slashed that to just four weeks.

Waiting times for a number of community health services have fallen dramatically in the last 12 months.

Even though Bolton Primary Care Trust does not have to meet waiting time targets for community treatment, chiefs were determined to drive down how long patients had to be wait to be seen by specialist health staff and set their own goals.

Bosses at the PCT aimed to have all waiting times for treatment in the community down to just six weeks by the end of March this year and achieved this is 29 out of he 34 departments.

In one year the waiting times for children's occupational therapists fell from 54 weeks to just four, while the wait for the continence nursing service dropped from 20 weeks to four weeks in the same period.

Anna Basford, the PCT's director of primary care provision, said: "These waiting times aren't the result of any national policies or targets but come from local staff wanting to make a real difference to the experience of their patients. Staff have been prepared to change the way they work and they also listened to patients to help identify aspects of the service that could be streamlined."

One-off cash injections have been pumped into some services to reduce waiting times but others saw the decrease because of a change in the way staff work, such as making departments more efficient.

Other dramatic drops in waiting times include a fall from 28 to five weeks for learning disability services for children, a decrease from 12 weeks to five weeks in podiatry services, a slide from 12 weeks to three weeks for the wheelchair service and a reduction from 24 weeks to eight weeks for domiciliary therapy and falls service.