NHS increases surgery sessions to tackle hospital waiting lists

Hospitals are putting on extra surgery sessions in the evenings and at weekends to tackle the NHS’s spiralling waiting list and cut waiting times for patients.

Health trusts in England are taking the unusual step after a rise in people waiting for cancer, heart and other treatment – and especially those forced to wait more than a year – because of the pandemic.

Doctors, surgeons, health charities and hospital bosses are concerned that unusually long delays in accessing care could lead to patients’ conditions worsening or becoming inoperable. NHS Providers, which represents hospitals, fears sorting out the backlog could take up to five years.

Four trusts spanning 10 acute and specialist hospitals in west and north-west London have joined forces to treat each other’s patients in a move to tackle the huge numbers seeking care.

Figures collated by the trusts and shared with the Guardian show how dramatically waiting lists have increased across that area, as they have across England as a whole, as a result of the widespread suspension of normal NHS care over the last year.

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Source: The Guardian, 23 April 2021