NEWS NHS faces unprecedented backlog
According to the latest NHS England performance figures, nearly 3,000 people have now been waiting more than two years for a procedure (which the NHS Constitution promises should be performed within 18 weeks), and nearly 400,000 have been waiting over a year. The total number of people waiting for routine hospital care – 5.1 million – is now greater than at any time since records began in 2007. Tim Gardner, senior policy fellow at the
Health Foundation, commented that the figures are “a stark reminder of the pressure the NHS faces as it works to tackle the enormous backlog in routine hospital care caused by the pandemic. Waits of this magnitude are not acceptable to anyone and we know that the NHS and Government are working hard to find a solution. The NHS needs to increase levels of activity but this will be extremely difficult with significant workforce shortages, post-pandemic staff burnt-out and ongoing constraints on capacity due to COVID-19, including social distancing. The NHS urgently needs additional resources but importantly, local services also need the freedom and support to trial and evaluate innovative new approaches to tackling the backlog and share learning across the country. Making incremental improvements to business as usual, while important, will not be enough to address a challenge of this scale.” Nuffield Trust deputy director of research,
Dr. Sarah Scobie, added: “Alongside growing waits for planned care, it is clear that urgent non-COVID demand is now also growing rapidly. In May, the number of patients coming forward to accident and emergency services nearly reached levels seen before the pandemic. NHS staff continue to work under real pressure to get operations, tests, and treatment underway and make a dent in the troubling backlog. “The number of patients waiting over a year for planned care, usually surgery, has fallen in the latest available data for April 2021, but this remains a very large number of people at risk from worsening conditions... Rising cases and early signs of more hospitalisations in Delta variant hotspots are a real concern. If COVID demand rises alongside growing non-COVID need, the NHS will be forced again to do more with less given the reduction in bed numbers due to social distancing and ongoing staff exhaustion and shortages.”
Waiting lists in Wales
The latest statistics also show a record 595,272 people waiting for hospital treatment in Wales: 223,365 are waiting
nine months or more. The most common long waits are for trauma and orthopaedic treatment (87,918), general surgery patients (70,084), such as gallbladder and hernia operations. 50,962 people were waiting for ear, nose or throat treatment. Mr Richard Johnson, director for Wales
of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, said: “It is very distressing to see that, yet again, waiting times have increased for patients needing hospital treatment in Wales...Unless we have a clear plan for reducing the backlog, it will take years for us to catch up. Behind each of these statistics are people waiting in pain or discomfort for operations, such as hip and knee replacements, ear, nose and throat surgery, or breast reconstruction after mastectomy. These operations are crucial to reducing pain, restoring a patient’s quality of life or mobility and, in some cases, their ability to work. There is no quick solution, but we must focus on restoring patients’ access to timely surgery. For more than a year now, we have been calling for the creation of COVID-light surgical hubs across Wales, so that elective surgery can continue safely even if there are new variants of the virus, or outbreaks of seasonal flu. The Welsh Government must make waiting times their top priority by allocating funding both for surgical hubs and to training more surgeons, nurses and anaesthetists.”
Waiting lists in Scotland As of 31 March 2021: 105,630 patients were waiting to be seen in Scotland for the eight key diagnostic tests, an increase of 4.7% from 31 December 2020 and 24.9% higher than 31 March 2020. When comparing to pre-pandemic levels, the waiting list size is 19.6% higher than 28
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February 2020. Of those waiting for one of the eight key tests, 61.4% had been waiting six weeks or less (42 days), compared to 55.9% at 31 December 2020 and 75.1% at 31 March 2020. However, there is notable variation across test types and Health Boards, ranging from 20.4% to 81.5% for an endoscopy and 40% to 99.3% for radiology tests.
Waiting lists in Northern Ireland Quarterly statistics for Northern Ireland (January to March 2021), show over 111,209 people waiting for surgical treatment, either as an inpatient or day case admission, with more than half (68,309) of these patients waiting more than a year for their procedures. In total, 446, 251 people were waiting for either a first outpatient appointment with a consultant, or an inpatient or day case admission. Mr Mark Taylor, NI director of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, commented: “It was a brutal start to the year, with many procedures, including cancer operations, needing to be cancelled or postponed...Our health service was nearing crisis point before the pandemic, and the situation has only worsened over the last year.” The Royal College of Surgeons says that with planning and resources, the backlog could be dealt with in less than 10 years. Its ‘Action Plan for Surgical services in Northern Ireland – 10 Steps Not 10 Years’ sets out solutions for addressing the backlog of patients waiting for operations. The plan’s 10 recommendations include a call for increased investment, protected surgical beds, expansion of COVID-light sites, surgical training enhancements, and an expansion of the wider surgical workforce, alongside programmes to support staff wellbeing.
AUGUST 2021
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