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Showing results for tags 'Long waiting list'.
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Content ArticleClinicians at Guy's & St Thomas' Foundation Trust in London are preparing to publish the results of 15 one-day HIT lists between February 2021 and August 2022, involving 300 patients across eight different specialties, in which they claim they have been able to carry out four times as many operations as they would normally expect to complete in a month using conventional lists.
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Content ArticleLack of capacity in social care is having a severe effect on NHS services as hospitals are unable to discharge patients without appropriate care arrangements in place. This is causing delays right across the healthcare system. In this report, NHS Confederation highlights the risks to patient safety caused by the workforce crisis affecting social care in England. In the Confederation's latest survey, 99% of healthcare leaders agreed that there is a social care workforce crisis in their local area, and almost all agreed that it is worse than a year ago and expect it to deteriorate into this winter. The report recommends the government focus on the following key priorities to deal with the crisis: Increase pay in the social care sector, starting by immediately implementing a national care worker minimum wage Publish a long-term, properly funded plan to develop the care workforce and offer career progression opportunities Commit to increasing overall investment to increase access to care to those who need it, meet future demand and pay more for care
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Content ArticlePatient choice has been a feature of the NHS in England for the last two decades, but patients' knowledge about what choices they have in accessing their NHS healthcare is variable. This report by the Patients Association and the Independent Healthcare Providers Network (IHPN) looks at the role patient choice can play in tackling the elective care backlog. The report found that: there are significant variations in waiting times across the country. patients do not need to travel long distances to access care more quickly. On average, a patient would need to travel just 13.2 miles to go from one of the worst performing providers to one of the top performers. the potential for reducing waiting times by accessing care through an alternative provider was backed up by both polling and focus group work, which found the public is enthusiastic about patient choice. people's awareness of their rights around where they receive their NHS treatment is low, suggesting the Government and NHS England need to do more to promote choice and make it easier for patients to understand the options available to them.
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Content ArticleThis video examines the crisis facing NHS ambulance services in the UK and looks at the impact of delays and lack of capacity on patient safety. Paul Brand, UK Editor at ITV News, speaks to ambulance crews, patients and a recently bereaved family about their experiences, and highlights the increased stress levels ambulance staff are reporting. Note: The video contains footage of a 999 call that some viewers might find distressing.
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Content ArticleThe Covid-19 pandemic has led to the reorganisation of healthcare services to limit the transmission of the virus and deal with the sequelae of infection. This reorganisation had a detrimental effect on cardiovascular services, with reductions in hospitalisations for acute cardiovascular events and the deferral of all but the most urgent interventional procedures and operations. Aortic stenosis (AS) is the most common form of valvular heart disease. Once stenosis is severe, symptoms follow and the prognosis is poor, with 50% mortality within 2 years of symptom onset. Thus, timely treatment is of paramount importance. There was a large decline procedural activity to treat severe AS during the COVID-19 pandemic. As we move into an era of ‘living with’ COVID-19, plans must urgently be put in place to best manage the additional waiting list burden for treatment of severe AS. In this study, Stickels et al. used mathematical methods to examine the extent to which additional capacity to provide treatment of severe AS should be created to clear the backlog and minimise deaths of people on the waiting list.
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Content ArticleAhead of the government's medium-term fiscal plan, the annual Institute for Government/Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) public services stocktake reveals that public services won’t have returned to pre-pandemic performance by the next election, which in most cases was already worse than when the Conservatives came to power in 2010. Performance Tracker reviews the state of nine public services – general practice, hospitals, adult social care, children’s social care, neighbourhood services, schools, police, criminal courts and prisons – and their comparative and inter-connected problems.
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Content ArticleThis article in the BMJ highlights a number of recent articles that reflect on the realities facing the health service after the first brutal years of the Covid-19 pandemic. It summarises and links to articles in the BMJ about the elective care backlog, A&E waiting times, remote appointments, Government pressures that stop senior clinicians speaking out about pressures, and the need for credible policy solutions. It also highlights an article outlining how Brexit and the Northern Ireland Protocol have resulted in the UK being denied access to European research funding and meetings.
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Content ArticleAmbulance services in England are under immense pressure. In July 2022, all ambulance services in England declared REAP (Resource Escalation Action Plan) level four, reflecting potential service failure. Volumes of calls to 999 are increasing, patients in distress and pain are waiting longer for help to reach them, and ambulance teams feel unable to do their job well. The new Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has previously named cutting ambulance waits as his number one priority. As he takes up the role for the second time, he will again need to include ambulances in his list of priorities for the health and care system. Steps taken to date to help address the underlying issues have not yet had an impact on the pressures facing ambulance services. This analysis from The Health Foundation looks at ambulance service performance and explores the contributing factors and priorities for improvement.
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Content ArticleIt is well known that pausing planned hospital care during the pandemic worsened growing waiting lists, and that waits for routine care now stand at record-breaking levels. This research from the Nuffield Trust, supported by the NHS Race and Health Observatory, looks at how the fallout from the pandemic affected people across different ethnic groups, and whether that impact was spread evenly.
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Content ArticleFor specialist treatment, Palestinians often need to be referred to a hospital outside Gaza – then apply for a travel permit. Tight budgets and restrictions mean few are granted. Int this Guardian article, one woman details the obstacles she has faced.
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Content ArticleThe number of people on NHS Wales waiting lists for treatment has reached record levels. This problem has worsened since the Covid-19 pandemic, with the average wait time for treatment more than doubling since December 2019. This report by the Welsh Centre for Public Policy identifies five key areas in which policy could be developed to improve outcomes and reduce waiting times. These areas target the underlying factors causing increased waiting times, and are likely to both improve the overall performance of the health system, and to impact outcomes which matter to patients, resulting in a more patient-centred approach: Workforce capacity Digital technology Reimagining primary care Systems collaboration Follow-up care
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Content ArticleThis Health and Social Care Select Committee report examines the pressure currently facing general practice, which is leading to low morale, GPs leaving the profession and problems recruiting new GPs. In turn, patients are increasingly dissatisfied with the level of access they receive. The root cause of the situation is that there are not enough GPs to meet the ever-increasing demands on the service, coupled with patients presenting with increasing complexity due to an ageing population. The report outlines the Committee's assessment of the key issues, including the problems with reliance on locum doctors and lack of continuity of care, and outlines what the Government should do to equip general practice for the future.
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Content ArticleThis opinion piece by GP educator and writer John Launer looks at the current delays and cancellations to routine appointments facing patients with long term conditions. He describes his personal experience of waiting three years with no face-to-face of phone appointment to review his condition, when this should happen every six months. John outlines the fact that routine outpatient care in some hospitals is unravelling, but with no monitoring of the situation and without publicity. He highlights the risks for patients who are not receiving the regular contact with healthcare professionals that they need, including medical complications, emergency admissions and even preventable deaths. There is particularly risk to patients who do not feel able to contact their consultant or specialist. When speaking to the hospital department about how the risks were being mitigated, John was concerned to discover that there were no screening procedures in place for clinicians to determine which patients were at highest risk; no prioritisation as going on and there was no system in place to monitor the consequences of this.
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Content ArticleThis Nuffield Trust Quality Watch blog from Sophie Flinders and Sarah Scobie takes a closer look at the rising number of patients facing delays in leaving hospital – and explores the reasons for why it’s happening.
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Content ArticleThe number of people waiting for NHS treatment in England has risen rapidly during the Covid-19 pandemic, with more than 6.8 million people waiting for treatment in July 2022. Read the Institute for Fiscal Studies' analysis of NHS waiting lists.
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Content Article
Nine specialist mesh centres have been set up by NHS England to offer removal surgery and other treatment to women suffering from complications and pain as a result of vaginal mesh surgery, but women are reporting that they are not operating effectively. In this opinion piece, Kath Sansom highlights ten problems with these specialist mesh centres, evidenced by the real experiences of women who are part of the Sling the Mesh campaign Facebook group. -
Content ArticleThis study in BMJ Open examines the impacts of the four episodes of industrial action by English junior doctors in early 2016. The authors looked at the impact of the strikes on A&E visits, outpatient appointments and cancellations, admitted patients and all in-hospital mortality. The study concluded that industrial action by junior doctors during early 2016 had a significant impact on the healthcare provided by English hospitals. It also found that t here were regional variations in how these strikes affected providers, and that there was not a measurable increase in mortality on strike days.
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EventA record excess of four million people are now awaiting hospital treatment in England. This number includes more than 83,000 who have been waiting more than a year. On Thursday 17 September, RSM President Professor Roger Kirby will interview Professor Derek Alderson, immediate past President of the Royal College of Surgeons, Ben Challacombe, Consultant Urological Surgeon at Guy’s and St Thomas’ and Hannah Warren, Specialist Registrar at King’s College Hospital to discuss the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on surgeons, surgery and surgical waiting lists. In addition, the panel will discuss whether the mass testing proposed by the Prime Minister in his “Operation Moonshot” initiative could help to resolve the situation. The webinar will include plenty of opportunities for questions. Registration
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Content ArticleNew analysis by the Health Foundation shows there were 4.7 million fewer people referred for routine hospital care – for things like hip, knee and cataract surgery – between January and August 2020 compared to the same period in 2019, representing a potential hidden backlog of unmet care needs. The research highlights the scale of the challenge facing the NHS as it looks to resume services following the disruption caused by the first wave of COVID-19. The number of patients in hospital with COVID-19 is growing as we head into winter, a time when the NHS always experiences greater pressures from flu and other seasonal illnesses. If the virus is not controlled and emergency pressures surge, even more routine treatment will need to be postponed which will only add to the challenge of recovering from the pandemic.
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Content ArticleThe onset of COVID-19 caused some patients throughout the United States to delay their surgeries as many hospital systems postponed nonemergent procedures. This led to a potentially large backlog of case volume. In a recent McKinsey survey of health system leaders, hospital executives said they may struggle to address this backlog given workforce availability, enhanced sanitation protocols, and reserved inpatient capacity. Without healthcare systems recalibrating demand and capacity, patients could face long backlogs for procedures, and potentially experience higher morbidity and mortality rates. Solutions may include 1) reducing the unnecessary deferral of care, 2) effectively addressing new throughput challenges, 3) using advanced analytics to better forecast demand and manage capacity in real time, and 4) reimagining operating room operations to increase long-term capacity. Berlin et al. explore these solutions further in this article.
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Content ArticleDr Kathryn Leask outlines steps GPs can take to try and avoid patients coming to harm as a result of delayed referrals and provides advice on dealing with patient complaints on this issue. There are some steps GPs can take to try to avoid patients coming to harm while putting themselves in the best position to address the potential medico-legal ramifications. In their guidance on Delegation and referral the GMC says that you are not accountable for the actions or omissions of colleagues to whom you make referrals. However, you are accountable for your decisions to transfer care and the steps you have taken to make sure that patient safety is not compromised. If you are aware that there are delays for a particular service and your patient is likely to be affected by this, you should make this clear to them and manage their expectations from the outset. In this GP Online article, Kathryn gives practical tips for GPs and shares a case example.
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Content Article
NHS e-Review platform
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in Regulatory bodies/standards/guidance
A national bespoke system, called NHS e-Review, has been developed and launched as part of the NHS Covid Incident Recovery programme. The online system has been developed to support clinicians record the clinical priority of patients on a waiting list and to identify alternative pathways for patients if required. -
Content ArticlePatient Safety Learning’s formal response to the Health and Social Care Committee inquiry report Delivering core NHS and care services during the pandemic and beyond, which calls for urgent action to assess and tackle a backlog of appointments and an unknown patient demand for all health services, specifically across cancer treatments, mental health services, dentistry services, GP services and elective surgery.
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Content ArticleIn March, the charity Breast Cancer Now asked people with breast cancer to tell us how coronavirus had affected their treatment and care. 580 people responded. Many reported that they or their loved ones had experienced delays or cancellations to treatment and monitoring scans. Others had not experienced any changes to their treatment. To understand how people’s experiences may have changed and try to better quantify some of the impacts, Breast Cancer Now ran a second survey between 9 July and 6 August. 2,124 people with breast cancer responded. They also spoke to 12 healthcare professionals from different parts of the breast cancer pathway including radiographers, surgeons, oncologists specialising in drug treatment and radiotherapy, and clinical nurse specialists. This was supplemented by data available on the impact of the pandemic, for example on referrals to see a specialist. This report sets out their findings and recommendations for what needs to happen next to tackle the challenges identified. The content is split into four sections: Diagnosis Treatment Clinical trials and research Care and support.
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Content ArticleUrgent action is needed in the NHS to meet a ballooning backlog of procedures put on hold during the pandemic and build a more resilient health care system. This report from Reform, produced jointly with Edge Health, shows the scale of the challenges the NHS faces: 6 million fewer patients were referred to treatment in 2020 than in 2019 • 10 million patients could be on a waitlist by April By April, 52-week waits for care are projected to have risen 12,008% since March 2020 (by December they had already risen by 7139%) Cancellations of diagnostic testing and delayed treatment may lead to 1,660 extra deaths from lung cancer alone.
