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Found 799 results
  1. News Article
    Patients awaiting a diagnostic test are to be assessed according to risk of becoming disabled as the service tries to prioritise in the face of huge backlogs. NHS England guidance released yesterday said local teams should categorise diagnostic waits on a four-point scale so those in most urgent need are seen first. It said this would mean, “recognising that for less urgent or routine diagnostics, some patients may experience a delay”. The diagnostics data for February showed 1.15 million people waiting for a test, compared to 1.08m in February 2020 – however, the proportion of people waiting more than 13 weeks rose from 0.6% in 2020 to 28.5% this year. The number of people on the list waiting more than six weeks also increased five-fold over the year. No more than 1% of patients are supposed to wait longer than six weeks for a diagnostic test, under government waiting time standards. The NHS England guidance puts diagnostics on the same footing as elective treatment, which has been organised according to clinical priority – P1 being the most urgent P4 being the least — since shortly after the pandemic hit last year. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 13 May 2021
  2. News Article
    Covid has left a toxic legacy for the NHS, with hospitals facing a huge backlog, putting lives at risk, patient groups and staff are warning. And in-depth analysis by BBC News has found: waiting lists have ballooned at some hospitals in England, with more than one out of every 10 of patients in a quarter of trusts left at least a year without treatment major disruption to cancer services, with some hospitals struggling to treat half of their patients within the target time of two months concern growing for 45,000 "missing cancer patients", after drops in GP referrals and screening services across the UK. Elaine Walsh was diagnosed with womb cancer in January. She should have been operated on within weeks, but her operation was cancelled because of the pandemic and the backlog it had caused. Elaine's story is not unique. Analysis by BBC News shows the numbers starting treatment within the target time have fallen during the pandemic. And some trusts are struggling to start treatment for even half of patients in the recommended timeframe - two months following an urgent referral from their GP. About one in every four of the patients waiting the longest has postponed treatment themselves - and nurses at the trust have been phoning and pleading with them to have treatment. This reluctance to come forward coupled with problems accessing GP and screening services at points in the pandemic is the reason why the number of patients coming forward for checks and being diagnosed has dropped. Analysis by Macmillan Cancer Support suggests across the UK there are 45,000 "missing" cancer patients. Read full story Source: BBC News, 13 May 2021
  3. News Article
    The East of England has been revealed as the worst-performing region for long ophthalmology waits, with almost half the waiting list at one acute trust already breaching the 52-week milestone. Eleven per cent of the region’s 59,000 ophthalmology patients had already been waiting more than a year for treatment at the end of February, compared to 6 per cent in London, the best performing region. West Suffolk Foundation Trust — which is in health and social care secretary Matt Hancock’s local constituency — had by far the biggest problem on this measure of any trust in England, with 42% of the waiting list (660 patients) referred for treatment more than a year ago. Papers submitted to West Suffolk FT’s board meeting in April said there were “limited option[s] for independent sector capacity” and patients were reluctant to travel to other hospitals for treatment. The trust did not respond when asked to comment. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 13 May 2021
  4. News Article
    Virtual wards, at-home antibiotic kits and using artificial intelligence in GP surgeries are among new initiatives to be trialled as part £160m funding to tackle waiting lists in the NHS. NHS England announced the funding to aid in the health service’s recovery after the pandemic, after figures last month revealed the number of people waiting to begin hospital treatment in England had risen to a new record. A total of 4.7 million people were waiting to start treatment at the end of February - the highest figure since records began in August 2007. But NHS England said indicators suggest operations and other elective activity were at four-fifths of pre-pandemic levels in April, which is "well ahead" of the 70% threshold set out in official guidance. It said it is working to speed up the health service's recovery by trialling new ways of working in 12 areas and five specialist children's hospitals. The so-called "elective accelerators" will each get some of the £160m as well as extra support for new ways to increase the number of elective operations, NHS England said. Tens of thousands of patients in the trial areas will be part of initiatives including a high-volume cataract service, one-stop testing facilities and pop-up clinics to allow patients to be seen and discharged closer to home. Other trials over the next three months include virtual wards and home assessments, 3D eye scanners, at-home antibiotic kits, "pre-hab" for patients ahead of surgery, artificial intelligence in GP surgeries and so-called "Super Saturday" clinics, bringing multi-disciplinary teams together at the weekend to offer more specialist appointments. Read full story Source: The Independent,
  5. News Article
    Ministers have been urged to implement a clear recovery plan to bring down the country’s patient waiting lists that have ballooned to record-breaking levels as a result of disruption from the pandemic. Labour has warned that thousands of people waiting for hospital treatment are at risk of permanent disability and losing their livelihoods and has demanded government action. Some 387,885 patients in England are waiting more than a year for hospital treatment, according to NHS data. This has increased month-on-month since March of last year when the UK was first placed into lockdown. A year ago, in February 2020, the number of people having to wait more than 52 weeks to start treatment stood at just 1,613. In total, 4.7 million patients in England are waiting for some form of treatment or healthcare service – the highest figure since records began in August 2007. Read full story Source: The Independent, 26 April 2021
  6. News Article
    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. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 23 April 2021
  7. News Article
    Three acute trusts have teamed up to carry out surgical procedures on hundreds of children over several weekends as part of plans to tackle waiting lists in the region. Trusts across the Bath and North East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire Integrated Care System are pooling resources to tackle long waits in paediatric oral and ear, nose and throat services. The initiative began on the April bank holiday weekend. Thirty-eight of the longest waiters from Royal United Hospitals Bath Foundation Trust, who had been waiting up to 74 weeks for oral surgery, were treated by Salisbury FT. The other trust involved in the plans is Great Western Hospitals FT. More than 400 children are expected to be treated over a series of joint surgery weekends. The next, which will also focus on both oral and ENT surgery, will take place over the early May bank holiday. RUH’s chief executive Cara Charles-Barks told HSJ the joint surgery plans will have a “huge impact” on the region’s elective waiting lists. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 21 April 2021
  8. News Article
    The NHS in England is required by legislation to ensure that at least 92 per cent of patients on the waiting list have been waiting no longer than 18 weeks from referral to treatment. At the end of February, following a year of covid restrictions, that waiting time measure exceeded 52 weeks. How much longer than 52 weeks? We don’t know, because the data stops at “52 plus”. But there is good news, because this is about to change. Guidance was issued during March requiring two major improvements to the published RTT data. Firstly, instead of stopping at 52 weeks plus, the weekly waiting time cohorts will continue up to 104 weeks plus. Secondly, we are going to get a lot more information about mental health and other RTT waiting times, because the catch-all “Other” specialty is going to be broken down into medical, surgical, mental health, paediatric and the rest. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 16 April 2021
  9. News Article
    Hundreds of senior NHS managers have voiced their fears for the future of the health service amid the ongoing coronavirus crisis without a significant pay rise to help retain staff on the frontline. A survey of more than 800 senior NHS managers has revealed the extreme pressure some have been working under, with many working 20 or more hours of unpaid extra hours each week. More than 90 per cent backed a significant pay rise for NHS staff to try and head off a feared exodus of nurses, doctors and other staff leaving the NHS after the pandemic. This would help shore up the service as it faces the daunting task of tackling record waiting lists now totalling 4.7 million patients. Some managers said that the government’s planned 1 per cent pay rise was an “insult” and made them feel “worthless”, in responses to the survey, run by the Managers in Partnership union. Another described NHS staff as being treated like “cannon fodder” during the crisis. Read full story Source: The Independent, 16 April 2021
  10. News Article
    Around 4.7 million people were waiting for routine operations and procedures in England in February - the most since 2007, NHS England figures show. Nearly 388,000 people were waiting more than a year for non-urgent surgery compared with just 1,600 before the pandemic began. During January and February, the pressure on hospitals caused by COVID-19 was particularly acute. NHS England said two million operations took place despite the winter peak. However, surgeons said hospitals were still under huge pressure due to the second wave of Covid, which had led to "a year of uncertainty, pain and isolation" for patients waiting for planned treatment. Speaking on a visit to Dartmouth, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the government would "make sure that we give the NHS all the funding that it needs... to beat the backlog". He said the situation had been "made worse by Covid", and added: "We do need people to take up their appointments and to get the treatment that they need." Read full story Source: BBC News, 15 April 2021
  11. News Article
    The NHS must think “very radically” about how it redesigns its elective pathways following the coronavirus pandemic, Sir Simon Stevens has told HSJ. Speaking at the HSJ Leadership Congress yesterday, NHS England’s chief executive said the service should ensure as much elective work is done as possible, while covid prevalence is low, while at the same time thinking about “different ways of doing things”. He declined to outline how many very long-waiters the service had or would have in coming months, explaining that some predictions have been “significantly off” in the past, and that future demand is unknown. The NHS chief stressed that other areas of the service would also face post-covid pressures, announcing a further investment in and expansion of long-covid clinics. “We want to see equivalent attention paid to the increased needs we’ve seen in mental health services, including eating disorders, and we want to make sure that the health service continues to expand its offer for long covid,” he said. “To that end we have 69 clinics identified last year, we will have 83 long covid clinics in place by the end of this month, so a significant expansion there.” There will be at least one in each integrated care system area, he said. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 14 April 2021
  12. News Article
    Patients could be waiting as much as two years for vital operations by the time of the next election due to a “truly frightening” backlog of care caused by the pandemic, the NHS’s former boss has said. Lengthening delays in getting treatment in England are will become a major political problem for Boris Johnson and pose a risk to patients’ health, Sir David Nicholson told the Guardian. “The backlog is truly frightening. We can very easily get to the next election with people waiting over two years. It’s easy to do that,” said Nicholson, citing an explosion in the number of people waiting at least a year since the start of the COVID-19 crisis. “The whole issue of access [to care] is a greater threat to the NHS than privatisation because poor access undermines confidence amongst those people who fund the service – taxpayers,” he added. The widespread suspension of normal NHS diagnostic tests and surgery during the pandemic as hospitals prioritised Covid care has left the service in England with a record 4.59 million people waiting for hospital treatment. That number is set to rise to what the NHS Confederation believes could be as much as 6.9m cases by the end of the year as people on a “hidden waiting list” – who put off seeking help after discovering symptoms of illness – finally visit a GP. According to the most recent figures, the number of people who have been waiting for at least a year has rocketed from 1,613 before the pandemic struck to 304,044. Under the NHS Constitution, 92% of people waiting are meant to be treated within 18 weeks. However, a third of the 4.59 million people have already waited longer than that. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 2 April 2021
  13. News Article
    Hospital bosses are bracing themselves for a clash with ministers over how quickly they can clear the backlog of NHS care that built up during the pandemic. They are warning that it will take “years” to treat all those whose care was cancelled because Covid disrupted so many hospital services, particularly surgery and diagnostic tests. Staff shortages, exhaustion among frontline personnel after tackling the pandemic and their need to have a break mean that progress will be slower than the government expects, NHS trust chiefs say. “We can’t say with certainty how long it will take to tackle the backlog of planned operations because we don’t really know how big that backlog will end up being,” said Chris Hopson, the chief executive of NHS Providers. “The NHS will obviously go as fast as it can, as we always do. But it’s already apparent that clearing the entire backlog will take years rather than months.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 18 March 2021
  14. News Article
    A group of 47 cancer charities says that without urgent action, the UK's cancer death rate will rise for the first time in decades. NHS figures suggest tens of thousands fewer people started cancer treatment since the first lockdown compared to normal times. One Cancer Voice says that the NHS needs more resources. The government says cancer treatment remains a top priority and urges people to see their GP if they have symptoms. Radio 1 Newsbeat has spoken exclusively to One Cancer Voice about the impact of coronavirus on cancer care. The group of charities wants to see more staff available to diagnose and treat cancer, with greater NHS access to private facilities in order to "clear the backlog". "We are calling on the government to invest more money in ensuring the backlog of cancer cases is reduced and eliminated," says Michelle Mitchell, the boss of Cancer Research UK, which heads up One Cancer Voice. "We could face, in this country today, the prospect of cancer survival reducing for the first time in decades. That's why urgent action is required by the government." Read full story Source: BBC News, 16 March 2021
  15. News Article
    NHS England’s cancer director has said it could take another year for the level of cancer treatments and diagnosis carried out to return to normal, after being impeded by COVID-19. National cancer director Dame Cally Palmer told HSJ’s national cancer forum event last week that activity over the past 12 months had been 89% of the previous year, but the service was committed to getting “fully reset” to 2019 levels by March 2022. She shared information showing that, by December 2020, the amount of treatment being carried out following an urgent referral, for most cancers, exceeded December 2019 levels, but that there are still significant treatment backlogs. And, for lung cancer patients, the number of treatments carried out in December 2020 was only 73% of that a year earlier — a decrease from September and October 2020 levels — as covid pressures rose during the third wave. Lung cancer is one of the most amenable to treatment if picked up early. Other areas of diagnostics and treatment have also been severely impeded because of requirements to change practice to reduce the risk of spreading covid, particularly to vulnerable patients. Dame Cally, also chief executive of the Royal Marsden Foundation Trust, said the service was committed to returning to at least normal levels of activity across the board by March next year. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 12 March 2021
  16. News Article
    The Covid surge in January hit key services including cancer and routine surgery, NHS England figures show. Less than half the expected number of operations were done, pushing the waiting list to a record-high of 4.6m. More than 300,000 of those have been waiting more than a year for treatment - compared to 1,600 before the pandemic began. Surgeons described it as a dire situation which would take a long time to turnaround. Tim Mitchell, of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, said: "Behind today's statistics are people waiting in limbo. Many will be in considerable pain, others will have restricted mobility and be at risk of isolation and loneliness." "Dealing with this daunting backlog will take time, and also sustained investment in the NHS," he said. Similar problems are also being seen in Scotland where 39,000 people have been waiting over a year for treatment. The NHS Confederation has warned the true picture could be much worse with nearly 6 million fewer referrals made by GPs in England for routine treatments, which includes operations such as knee and hip replacements, last year, suggested there was an additional hidden backlog. The organisation, which represents hospitals, said it was likely people have not sought help or found it difficult to access services during the pandemic. Read full story Source: BBC News, 11 March 2021
  17. News Article
    NHS clinics were still seeing just two-thirds of the number of chronic pain patients they normally would by the end of last year, with some patients having waited a year or more. In Ayrshire and Arran, 94 of the 112 chronic pain patients seen between October and December – equivalent to nearly 84% – had been on the waiting list for their first appointment for 52 weeks or longer. Only nine were seen within the 18-week target. This was by far the worst performance for any health board in Scotland. Pain relief clinics across NHS Scotland were paused for four months at the beginning of the pandemic, leading to reports that some patients with problems such as nerve damage and arthritis were paying thousands of pounds to travel to private facilities in England for medical infusions or injections to ease their symptoms. In a statement at the end of last year, Joanne Edwards, the director of acute service at NHS Ayrshire and Arran, apologised for the delays, saying the coronavirus pandemic "has had a significant impact on the capacity of the chronic pain service". Ms Edwards said the health board was increasing the number of face to face and telephone clinics that the chronic pain team can undertake, adding that an "enhanced clinical review" of the waiting list was also being carried out to prioritise patients for appointment based on clinical need. Read full story Source: The Herald, 10 March 2021
  18. News Article
    As many as 6 million “hidden” patients could join the queue for NHS treatment in the coming months, swelling official waiting lists to records not seen for more than a decade, health chiefs have warned. In the wake of a Budget that offered no new investment for the health service ministers must level with the public that previous guarantees on waiting times are now impossible to meet, the head of the NHS Confederation has said. In an interview with The Independent, Danny Mortimer said some patients should expect to wait many months, or possibly even beyond a year, for their treatment. He said: “It's going to take many years to recover the waiting list position to where we want it to be. “We have to be realistic about the time that it will take us to address these issues, and the government have to be realistic about what it will take particularly if this week’s Budget is an indication that actually there won’t be money made available to the NHS to truly address these issues. “The government has to take responsibility for explaining to the public what the consequences of that are.” Read full story Source: The Independent, 7 March 2021,
  19. News Article
    A woman with dementia was effectively left housebound for the last eight years of her life due to surgical delays, an investigation found. The Public Services Ombudsman for Wales said the individual worried about being "caught short" due to incontinence and it affected her family relationships. Her son complained about the care she received at Glan Clwyd Hospital in Denbighshire, in particular. Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board has since apologised to the family. Ombudsman Nick Bennett said it was clear there was "significant injustice" in the case of the individual, who was identified in the report findings as Mrs B. The patient's son complained there had been surgical delays for a rectal prolapse issue dating back to 2011, concerns over inpatient medical care provided by an elderly care consultant, and a delayed diagnosis of terminal ovarian cancer during a hospital stay. The ombudsman found that clinical decision-making by colorectal surgeons "was not in keeping with accepted clinical practice". Read full story Source: BBC News, 2 March 2021
  20. News Article
    The government has been called on to take action over the national “backlog” for a specialist mental health service after a woman died after a substantial wait to access treatment. Carole Mitchell, who died by suicide on 22 November 2019, waited almost seven months for a first appointment after being referred to Greater Manchester Mental Health Foundation Trust for psychology services. In a prevention of future deaths report, published earlier this month, coroner Alison Mutch said the inquest was told waits had since increased and “someone in Mrs Mitchell’s position today would be more likely to wait nine months”. The coroner added evidence heard suggested the delay experienced was “reflective of both the regional and national backlog for appointments”. The report has been sent to both the Department of Health and Social Care and Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 1 March 2021
  21. News Article
    Hospitals across London are racing to tackle a backlog of tens of thousands of urgent operations that need to be carried out in the coming weeks to prevent patients dying or losing limbs, The Independent has learnt. The slow decline in Covid patient numbers means many hospitals across the capital are warning they will still be relying on extra staff, and “surge” beds opened at the height of the crisis, well into March. NHS bosses have been briefed that across the city there are about 15,000 priority two (P2) patients. These are classed as needing urgent surgery, including for cancer, within 28 days, or they could die or be at risk of losing a limb. But the lack of available operating theatres, nurses and anaesthetists mean the city has a shortfall of more than 500 half-day surgical lists a week. The Independent has spoken with multiple NHS insiders and seen briefing documents detailing the challenges facing the capital’s hospitals, which are expected to last up to 21 March in some areas. One briefing warned: “Hospitals have insufficient capacity to meet urgent elective demand for P2. P2 demand is intended to be seen within 28 days, the surge has occurred for over 28 days. Patients who would normally have been seen are waiting longer than clinically advisable." Read full story Source: The Independent, 25 February 2021
  22. News Article
    Waiting lists for NHS surgery in England could hit 10 million by April, a think tank has claimed while calling for NHS hospitals to use more private sector capacity to reduce delays for patients. In a new report the right-wing think tank Reform said the worst case scenario for patient waits could see one in six people in England waiting for treatment by April. It said the impact of coronavirus had turned the NHS into a “national Covid service” with six million fewer referrals for treatment in 2020. It warned the delays in treatments could have dire consequences for patients with an estimated 1,660 additional lung cancer deaths. But NHS bosses have hit back at the report saying it is inaccurate to say the NHS focused only on Covid, and that despite widespread cancellations it has continued to treat other patients. Predictions that the NHS waiting list would hit 10 million were made last year and proved wrong after hospitals ramped up routine services during the summer – although the second wave of the virus has again led to widespread cancellations including for surgery patients. The new Reform report claims capacity in private sector hospitals, where NHS England has secured new contracts to take on additional work during the Covid surge, have not been effectively used. The think tank wants NHS England to mandate the publication of ‘waiting list recovery plans’ by NHS trusts setting out how each hospital will use the private sector. Read full story Source: The Independent, 17 February 2021
  23. News Article
    The backlog of patients who have been waiting for cancer treatment for more than 104 days has more than doubled since last year, according to internal NHS England papers seen by HSJ. At the start of February, the backlog of cases already at more than 15 weeks had hit 6,109, compared to 3,000 at the same point in 2020. National targets state cancer patients should be treated with 62 days of being referred. In the North West region, the backlog has nearly tripled over the same time period, from 289 to 831 (see regional breakdown below). Senior sources told HSJ the increase had been largely driven by acute providers in Greater Manchester and Merseyside. Cases in which patients have to wait more than 104 days for treatment are generally considered serious breaches, and typically trigger a process to identify if the delay has caused harm to the patient. Some local systems have declared a “zero tolerance” for such instances. The data in the papers is provisional. Michelle Mitchell, Cancer Research UK’s chief executive, said the impact of covid-19 on cancer patients has been “devastating”. She added: “The government must urgently make sure the NHS gets the funding it needs to increase cancer service capacity, and give every person with cancer the timely diagnosis and treatment they deserve.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 13 February 2021
  24. News Article
    Elective activity levels were significantly lower in January than were achieved before Christmas, according to provisional NHS data seen by HSJ. In the three weeks to 20 December, the NHS was reporting around 110,000 day cases and 18,000 ordinary admissions each week. But during January these totals dropped to around 85,000 day cases and 10,000 ordinary admissions per week. This equates to a reduction of 23% and 44%, respectively. Regions that were more severely impacted by the third wave of coronavirus saw steeper reductions as covid pressures forced staff working in routine care services to be redeployed. In London and the South East, day case activity reduced by around 40 per cent between the same periods, while ordinary admissions fell by around 57%. Data for the Christmas fortnight was discounted, as activity always falls dramatically in this period. However, the activity levels in January appear to be significantly higher than those reported in the first wave of coronavirus in the spring. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 10 February 2021
  25. News Article
    Dozens and potentially hundreds of urgent operations for children have been cancelled during the third wave of the covid pandemic, HSJ can reveal. There are also concerns that national guidance for prioritising surgery “disadvantages” young people. Several well placed sources told HSJ that urgent operations for children have been delayed in recent weeks because of covid pressures. This is because of a combination of staff being diverted to help with adults sick with covid, and space in children’s facilities — including intensive care — being taken over for adult covid care, as well as other staff being absent due to covid. The royal college of surgeons has told HSJ that urgent children’s operations “are increasingly being cancelled around the country”. Dozens and potentially hundreds of children’s operations rated as priority two — those which are urgent and should be carried out within a month — have been cancelled and delayed in recent weeks in the capital, according to several well placed sources. This is alongside potentially thousands of priority three operations being cancelled, which are those needing to be carried out within three months. Read full story Source: HSJ, 31 January 2021
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