BOSSES at the Royal Bolton Hospital are to be called to account after failing to achieve a key target.

Hospitals are required to admit, transfer or discharge 98 per cent of patients who attend the accident and emergency department within four hours.

But problems with hitting the figure mean representatives from the Trust have been called to meet with Monitor, the regulator of foundation trusts, next month to explain the failure.

David Fillingham, Trust chief executive, said: “Last year we didn’t achieve the target in autumn and winter, and not achieving it in quarter three this year means the issue gets escalated by Monitor.

“We are going to meet them to talk about our current position and they want an action plan.

“We are a busy hospital; there has been norovirus and there is the whole issue of the weather, which means our performance has dipped. It’s the time of year, not so much trips and falls, but respiratory illness.

“We’ve had better plans than other years, so it’s not as bad as those.”

But he added: “We have more work to do to hit the target.”

He will be joined by Lesley Doherty, nursing and performance improvement director, Gary Raphael, director of finance director, Cliff Morris, trust chairman and Margaret Blenkinsop, non-executive director, for the meeting in London on March 12.

In quarters three and four in 2008/09 — October to December and January to March — the hospital saw 95.8 per cent and 94.6 per cent of patients within the four-hour target.

The target was hit in quarters one and two in 2009-10, but the Trust managed 97.6 per cent between October and December, prompting this latest action from Monitor.

The news follows an internal inquiry into the hospital’s A&E figures was held last year, after a routine data review revealed problems with recording times. A manager was later demoted.

A Monitor spokesman said: “If Monitor is not satisfied the board of the Trust fully understands the reasons for this breach and has robust plans in place to address these, we will consider further regulatory action.

“We have considerable powers to drive improvement at NHS foundation trusts. These range from requiring the board to undertake specific actions, to removing any, or all, of the directors or governors and appointing replacements, although we are not currently considering this option in relation to the Royal Bolton Hospital.”

cherry.thomas@theboltonnews.co.uk