Another winter health crisis must be avoided this year if NHS Tayside is to meet its treatment targets.
Last winter’s severe ill health caused some surgeries to be cancelled as more unwell people took to hospital over the season.
At NHS Tayside’s annual review yesterday, chief executive Lesley McLay explained how more contingency plans are to be put into place this year to prevent the same thing happening again.
She said the health board was on target to meet its treatment delivery target of 84 days before the winter hit hard last year, causing the cancellation of some elective surgeries.
She said: “Up until November the majority of specialists were on target but then we had the significant challenge of the winter.
“It was not just the number of patients but the people who came in were particularly unwell and their length of stay was long.
“We had to make the decision to cancel some elective surgery procedures. We prioritised the most serious cases like cancer surgeries.”
The health board is still recovering from the backlog, but according to Ms McLay, over the next three months it should get back on target.
She said the lessons had been learnt and greater partnership working with GPs to identify people 4who might need to be hospitalised earlier would help tackle the problem.
The meeting also heard that NHS Tayside’s teenage pregnancy rate, which was the highest in Europe in 2007, has dropped by almost 50% this year.
It was recognised that some of the board’s major challenges ahead will be the ageing population and health inequalities in Tayside.
Medical director Dr Andrew Russell said NHS staff are being asked to do the exceptional against a backdrop of continual change and financial challenges.
He said some of the main ways to tackle this are to work with partners including third sector volunteers and make greater use of technology.
The meeting was attended by Sports and Health Improvement Minister Jamie Hepburn MSP and was also a chance for members of the public to ask questions.