A HOSPITAL trust ordered by the Government to improve standards is set to miss a key target – because of a nightmare weekend, when patient numbers soared while it was short of beds and staff.

Colchester Hospital University NHS Foundation Trust is under orders from official regulator, Monitor, to perform better.

Its chief executive has revealed a weekend “blip” means the trust expects to miss its monthly target for treating accident and emergency patients within four hours of arrival Trust chief Peter Murphy told the trust’s board Colchester General Hospital experienced big problems last weekend when a surge in patients coincided with a high number of staff absences.

The problem was aggravated by the fact Great Bentley ward was closed for deep cleaning and was further deepened because patients, who were ready to go home, were not discharged as soon as they could have been.

The proportion of accident and emergency patients treated within four hours fell from 99 per cent to 97.4 per cent on Sunday, below the national minimum standard.

Mr Murphy admitted: “With the benefit of hindsight, I think we should have ceased our cleaning programme last weekend and allowed those beds to be available as a contingency.

“That was not the case. Frankly, it didn’t work and what is even more frustrating is our discharge processes did not work as we would expect.”

As a result, he said the trust now risked missing its monthly target.

Monitor acted last year after the trust failed to meet key targets including those for accident and emergency waiting times and waits for cancer treatment.

Chairman Richard Bourne was sacked and successful London trust chairman Sir Peter Dixon was appointed in his place to push through improvements.

Mr Murphy added: “I’m confident we will achieve quarterly and yearly targets, but given there is so little time left in March, the effect on last week and this week means there is a risk to the monthly target.

“There is an element of deja vu. We rely on people on the ground being confident they can take difficult decisions.

“For me, the difficult decision was not to shut the ward for an upgrade. The trend was very clear. Staffing was going down, demand was going up. Our capacity was going to be absolutely crucial.

“There is no doubt our performance has significantly improved, but we should be anticipating these blips – and that was a major blip at the weekend.”