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22
Dec
Interview: Harrogate hospital chief executive Jonathan Coulter
The NHS is “not delivering what it should be” and needs to improve, says the chief executive of Harrogate District Hospital.
Jonathan Coulter said performance across the health service is "nowhere near” where it should be and that the population expects better.
The Stray Ferret spoke with Mr Coulter at Harrogate District Hospital amid renewed focus on the NHS after the Labour government swept to power in July.
In a wide-ranging interview, he said Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust was in need of capital funding from government, discussed how the hospital is handling winter demand and revealed that the trust has set targets to improve A&E performance.
Is the NHS ‘broken’?
After its sweeping election victory in July, the Labour government appointed Wes Streeting as the new health secretary.
The move was part of Sir Keir Starmer’s plan to tackle productivity and performance in the NHS.
Mr Streeting wasted little time in getting to work, describing the health service as “broken” and later refused to back down on the comments.
The health secretary’s remarks reportedly did not sit well with senior officials in the NHS, who told the BBC his claims had “gone too far”.
Jonathan Coulter, chief executive at Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust.
The Stray Ferret asked Mr Coulter whether he felt Mr Streeting’s comments were fair.
Mr Coulter said:
I think that Wes’ language is trying to be how the population experiences it. He quite rightly feels accountable and under pressure to make it better.
Mr Coulter added that he felt the health service was not performing well and he would agree with Mr Streeting’s assessment on the issue.
He said:
The NHS as a philosophy and as a concept, he was never saying that that was broken. The idea of free at the point of delivery, cradle to the grave and providing people the support when they need it. But our current performance and our current delivery of healthcare across the country is nowhere near where we want it to be.
We don’t want people waiting longer than four hours in an A&E department, we don’t want people waiting a year and a half for an operation and we don’t want people struggling to see a GP. All of those sorts of things we don’t want to see. From a user of the health service and from the public’s perspective, it’s not delivering what it should be doing and I completely agree with that.
More funding
Mr Coulter’s comments come two months after the government announced plans to increase day-to-day spending on the health service by £22.6 billion over the next two years.
The money has been granted to the NHS on the condition that it improves performance.
While some trusts may eye the potential to improve their resources to help cut down waiting times, Mr Coulter has one eye on Harrogate’s capital projects.
Much of the estate is need of improvement, he says, and funding is much needed for schemes to help improve it.
Computer-generated image of the new day surgery at Harrogate hospital.
Some schemes are underway, such as the multi-million pound new day case surgery and imaging building— which is being built in place of the therapy services unit that was demolished this summer due to the presence of RAAC.
North Yorkshire Council gave planning approval for the project this month.
But other schemes are in need of funding.
The hospital has an ambition to invest in an electronic patient record, overhaul its IT systems and tackle much-needed maintenance such as ventilation systems and improving the look of entrances to the hospital.
Mr Coulter said:
There is some backlog maintenance. The buildings across the district hospital, some of it is in a better state than others.
I think in terms of what we want, access to more capital funding would be really helpful.
Waiting time targets
Away from the hospital estate, much of the focus has centred on the trust’s services.
Officials at Harrogate hospital have spent much of December urging people to only attend its emergency department if it is a life-threatening situation.
Mr Coulter revealed that the demand on A&E led staff to open up 20 extra beds at the hospital a month earlier than anticipated.
While the heightened pressure on hospital services is a national trend during winter due to the rise in respiratory illnesses, opening up extra bed space a month early is unusual.
Mr Coulter said he hoped that improving resources in areas such as urgent care and accident and emergency would be part of the funding mix from government.
However, during our interview, he also admitted that the trust needs to improve performance and productivity rather than just “ask for more money”.
Part of this will mean hitting targets in A&E, which the hospital is currently struggling with.
Emergency department at Harrogate District Hospital.
For trusts across the country, the national target is for 95% of patients who attend A&E to be admitted, discharged or transferred in under four hours.
Last month in Harrogate, 68.7% were seen within that timeframe — a drop from 72.5% in October.
Mr Coulter said the trust’s aim was to get back above 70% before the end of March. From there, he wants to be near the national standard going into 2026.
He said
We want to get back to the standard where 90 to 95 per cent of people are seen within four hours in the same way that we want to get our waiting times down. That’s probably a year and a bit away, but that’s where we want to get to.
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