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Found 778 results
  1. News Article
    At least 200,000 people missed out on essential surgery as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, with many enduring “misery and daily pain” as a result, a conference has heard. Both scheduled and emergency surgery levels dropped by 20% during the pandemic, suggesting there is now significant pent-up demand for treatment, according to the national clinical lead in surgery, Prof Deborah McNamara. Almost 343,000 people are waiting to see a surgeon for the first time, 100,000 of whom have been on a waiting list for more than 18 months, she told the conference on outcomes from the pandemic at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI). This was only the start of delays for patients, she pointed out, as they have to wait again for their procedure to be carried out. Currently, more than 71,000 patients are waiting for surgery, a fifth of whom have been on the list for more than a year. Long-waiting patients needing complex surgery have been disproportionately affected, she said, as the system focused on treating “quick-win” procedures such as endoscopies. The amount of day-case work carried out by hospitals is back to 84 per cent of 2017 levels, yet complex care remains at only 67 per cent, she pointed out. Patients waiting for surgery were enduring a “huge amount of misery” that remains unquantified, according to Prof McNamara. The pandemic resulted in some positive changes, she said, including shorter hospital stays, a greater role for physician associates and a generational change in the use of IT. However, it also led to greater constriction in the capacity for scheduled surgery, and greater seasonal variations in demand. Read full story Source: The Irish Times, 26 April 2022
  2. News Article
    A trust has discovered 1,800 patients who were removed by mistake from its elective waiting list. Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals Trust chief executive Matthew Trainer wrote to colleagues in the east London health system today to “apologise for the stress this will have caused those experiencing a delay”. Of the 1,800 patients involved, 600 have been waiting more than a year and roughly 200 have been waiting for more than two years. Mr Trainer’s note explained: “The patients have been waiting to see our specialists in routine clinics in gynaecology, neurology, neurosurgery and ophthalmology.” It continued: “As we have been working through our waiting lists, we have discovered a problem with one of them that was used to deal with the backlog created by the pandemic. “It contained routine referrals that were submitted by GPs who wanted their patients to be seen by a specialist, but for whom there were no appointments available due to covid-19. Unfortunately, these patients were removed automatically from this list before they had been seen.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 26 April 2022
  3. News Article
    A woman who has been waiting three years for a hysterectomy says she feels she and other women have been pushed to the bottom of the list. Jessica Ricketts, from Barry, is one of 164,000 patients who have been on various NHS waiting lists for more than a year, compared to less than 7,000 two-years-ago. But it will take another three years to tackle the backlog. Welsh government's plan to tackle long waits is due to be published later. But for Jessica, she remains in pain with endometriosis despite six gynaecological surgeries over the past 10 years and is now waiting for the hysterectomy. "Every day there's some sort of pain and I'm in pain right now," she told BBC Radio Wales Breakfast. "My fear is that the endometriosis - because obviously I'm just waiting - is now in my diaphragm, and so I get pain on my left side. "With every day almost, which used to just be cyclical and now it's gone a lot worse." Jessica is keen to see what the Welsh government's plan to cut waiting times is, but she believes women's health "seems to be at the very bottom of the pile". She added: "I think it's even more important now than ever, to really push the women's health side of things. We have it takes on average 10 years for a diagnosis of endometriosis. "As women we have to fight to even get past the GP who is severely under-trained in this department. "And it's just seems to be that because we're women. We're told that you know, just suck it up really and carry on and it needs to be a fairer system, particularly for the women of Wales and we need to stop pushing it to the bottom of the pile." Read full story Source: BBC News, 26 April 2022
  4. News Article
    Patients who have “lost hope” of ever seeing a doctor are falling off NHS waiting lists due to poor record-keeping by the SNP government, Scotland’s public spending watchdog has revealed. Stephen Boyle, the auditor-general, said there was no record of patients who drop off the waiting list to go private or who simply give up. Humza Yousaf, the health secretary, said he was aware of “a small number of people” who had gone abroad for transplants, including one of his own constituents. He admitted there was no way of knowing the scale of the issue, or whether the organs were obtained legally. Boyle said: “I don’t wish to be blasé and say it is straightforward, but it really should not be an insurmountable problem to have a clear vision and strategy, reviewed and commented on, with an annual transparent plan to track progress. “The government themselves don’t have the complete data we think they should have to make some of the decisions about the delivery of health and social care services and reform.” Gillian Mackay, an SNP MSP, said some constituents told her that they have been put on a waiting list and “they hear nothing more about when they will be seen, or how they will be prioritised”. Boyle said the NHS needs to “manage patients’ expectations about how long they will have to wait”. He said: “Everybody who is waiting for services needs to have a clear expectation of when they will receive those services, whether it is [for] cancer, or other treatments on clinical prioritisation. There is clear missing part in transparency.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: The Times, 19 April 2022
  5. News Article
    Growing numbers of patients in the UK are paying for private medical treatment because of the record delays people are facing trying to access NHS care, a report has revealed. They are using their own savings to pay for procedures that involve some of the longest waiting times in NHS hospital, such as diagnostic tests, cataract removals and joint replacements. The increase in the willingness to self-pay is closely linked to a desire for private treatments that was increasing even before Covid struck in March 2020. But many private hospitals were unable to meet that demand for much of the pandemic because coronavirus disrupted so much normal healthcare. Dr Tony O’Sullivan, an ex-NHS consultant and a co-chair of the campaign group Keep Our NHS Public, said: “The government’s deliberate and sustained running down of the health service has resulted in a two-tier system. The NHS is now in a permanent state of distress, leaving patients desperate for care, and – if they can afford it – feeling as if they have no choice but to go private, undermining the very vision of equality and care a well-funded NHS was so famous for. “Hard-working people would not need to line shareholders pockets in this way if the NHS had not been underfunded, understaffed and neglected for so long.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 20 April 2022
  6. News Article
    Thousands of lives are being put at risk due to delays and disruption in diabetes care, according to a damning report that warns patients have been “pushed to the back of the queue” during the Covid-19 pandemic. There are 4.9 million people living with diabetes in the UK, and almost half had difficulties managing their condition last year, according to a survey of 10,000 patients by the charity Diabetes UK. More than 60% of them attributed this partly to a lack of access to healthcare, which can prevent serious illness and early mortality from the cardiovascular complications of diabetes, rising to 71% in the most deprived areas of the country. One in three had no contact with healthcare professionals about their diabetes in 2021, while one in six have still not had contact since before the pandemic, the report by the charity said. Diabetes UK said that while ministers have focused on tackling the elective surgery backlog, diabetes patients have lost out as a result, and there is now an urgent need to get services back on track before lives are “needlessly lost”. Chris Askew, the chief executive of Diabetes UK, called for a national diabetes recovery plan. “Diabetes is serious and living with it can be relentless,” he said. “If people with diabetes cannot receive the care they need, they can risk devastating, life-altering complications and, sadly, early death. “We know the NHS has worked tirelessly to keep us safe throughout the pandemic, but the impacts on care for people living with diabetes have been vast. While the UK government has been focused on cutting waiting lists for operations and other planned care, people with diabetes have been pushed to the back of the queue.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 20 April 2022
  7. News Article
    A clinical director and several senior managers have written to a trust CEO warning that patients are routinely waiting more than 60 hours to be admitted to a ward from accident and emergency, leaving staff “crying with frustration and anger”. In a letter to executives at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals Foundation Trust, seen by HSJ, the managers say they lack support from the rest of the trust, and claim the emergency department at Royal Preston Hospital has a “never-ending elasticity in the eyes of others”. The letter, dated 30 March, is signed by clinical director Graham Ellis, two unit managers, the specialty business manager, and the matron. It says: “Whilst we have documented our concerns previously the current situation is worse than it has ever been…Our situation is increasingly precarious… “For the past few months we have on a regular basis had more than 50 patients waiting for a bed and that wait being in excess of 60 hours. “This means that at most times there is limited or no space to accommodate newly acutely ill patients causing ambulance handover delays of over four hours and delay in treatment.” Clinicians at Preston have been raising safety concerns about the ED for several years, but the letter is the first time concerns of senior managers have been made public. The letter references research which suggests patients die as a “direct result from long waits in ED”, and says there has been an increase in clinical incidents, pressure sores, detrimental outcomes, and occasions where patients “die without the dignity of privacy”. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 4 April 2022
  8. News Article
    Operations are being cancelled across England as Covid causes “major disruption” inside the NHS, the country’s top surgeon has said, as doctors and health leaders say the government’s backlog targets look increasingly unachievable. Six million people are on the waiting list for NHS hospital care, including more than 23,000 who have waited more than two years. Boris Johnson said in February that he had launched “the biggest catch-up programme in the history of the health service”, but in the same month he dropped every domestic Covid restriction. Now record-high Covid rates are wreaking havoc with the ability of the NHS to catch up with surgery that was delayed or cancelled before and during the pandemic. More than 28,000 staff are off work every day due to Covid, recent figures show, while more than 20,000 patients are in hospital with Covid, which has dramatically reduced the number of beds and space available for planned surgery patients. “Unfortunately, Covid-19 continues to cause major disruption in the NHS, with high staff absences in recent weeks,” Prof Neil Mortensen, the president of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, told the Guardian. “We have heard that planned surgery is being cancelled again in different parts of the country due to staff being off sick with the virus. This is understandably frustrating for surgical teams who want to help their patients by getting planned surgery up and running again. It’s also very distressing for patients who need a planned operation.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 14 April 2022
  9. News Article
    NHS leaders are warning that the health service is facing the "brutal reality" of an Easter as bad as most winters. Latest data shows record waits for planned surgery and in A&E, as staff plough through a backlog fuelled by Covid. The government says there is hope on the horizon. Jean Shepherd, 87, had a stroke in April last year, leaving her severely disabled and requiring round-the-clock care. At the end of February there was an outbreak of sickness at her nursing home and she needed hospital treatment. She had to wait in a wheelchair for more than 9 hours until an ambulance arrived to take her to A&E. She then spent 31 hours on a trolley between the emergency department and a secondary-care unit. "She was very distressed because she doesn't like hospitals at the best of time," says her son, Andy Shepherd. "Since the stroke, because of her cognitive ability, she doesn't understand what's happening around her." Mrs Shepherd was eventually moved to a bed in a main hospital ward, where her family says she later contracted Covid, before recovering and being discharged back to her care home two weeks later. "I appreciate that A&E departments have always been busy, but I just wasn't prepared for what greeted me at the hospital," says her son. "There were patients on ambulance trolleys literally everywhere and the staff were absolutely rushed off their feet. I remember thinking at the time that this is not sustainable." Read full story Source: BBC News, 14 April 2022
  10. News Article
    Two years ago the first wave of the covid pandemic reached its peak. The NHS had reacted with impressive speed to prepare for an influx of patients with an infectious disease that few knew much about, had no cure for, and for which there was no known vaccine. However, now the NHS goes into the Easter break in a more fragile state than in any previous winter since, at least, the 1990s. This is not just the direct result of covid hospitalisation, of course – although the distracting narrative of ‘with rather than because of covid’ has obscured how hugely damaging any kind of infectious disease that is as widespread in the community as covid is now can be to effective hospital care. For someone who has just undergone an operation, for example, the greatest threat is not from catching covid itself, but from the impact the virus may have on how quickly their wound may heal. Perhaps covid’s greatest continuing impact is on growing staff absences and the pernicious impact it is having on the long-term health of those who had the disease – even in some cases where it has been relatively mild. For the tens of thousands who have been hospitalised with covid, the consequences for their long-term health look more serious every day. Much of this new workload is ending up at the doors of primary and community care – and displacing other needs and services just when they are most required after two years of coping with the pandemic. There is usually one thing you can confidently say about the NHS, which is that in any crisis it will make sure the life-saving decisions are made on time. However, in the South West, and probably other regions too, that is not happening. People are dying because the NHS cannot – despite its best efforts – save them. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 8 April 2022
  11. News Article
    Long waiting times at Devon’s acute hospitals have forced commissioners to offer patients treatment 200 miles away in London in a bid to reduce the elective backlog. Devon Clinical Commissioning Group has secured extra capacity for patients requiring complex orthopaedic surgery under a new deal with the South West London Elective Orthopaedic Centre, located at Epsom General Hospital. The NHS-run orthopaedic centre is around 170 miles from Exeter in east Devon and 210 miles from Plymouth in west Devon. Many patients have declined to go, despite the CCG offering to cover their travel costs. It is the longest publicly reported distance patients are being sent for elective treatment in the NHS, with patients usually referred to neighbouring hospitals or integrated care systems if there is no capacity at their local provider. Nearly 1,500 patients in the Devon ICS have waited longer than two years for treatment. The latest national data for England showed nearly 23,000 patients had been waiting longer than two years in January. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 8 April 2022
  12. News Article
    The NHS in England is struggling to make progress on its flagship target to diagnose three-quarters of cancer cases at an early stage, MPs are warning. The Health and Social Care Committee said staffing shortages and disruption from the pandemic were causing delays. Some 54% of cases are diagnosed at stages one and two, considered vital for increasing the chances of survival. By 2028, the aim is to diagnose 75% of cases in the early stages, but there has been no improvement in six years. It means England - as well as other UK nations - lag behind comparable countries such as Australia and Canada when it comes to cancer survival. If the lack of progress continues, the committee warned that it could lead to more than 340,000 people missing out on an early cancer diagnosis. The Department of Health said it recognised "business as usual is not enough" and said it was developing a new 10-year cancer plan. But a spokesman said progress was already being made, with a network of 160 new diagnostic centres being opened.R Read full story Source: BBC News, 5 April 2022
  13. News Article
    Children are having to wait up to five years for an NHS autism appointment, according to figures obtained by the Observer that lay bare the crisis in children’s mental health services. Figures acquired under the Freedom of Information Act show that 2,835 autistic children referrals at Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership NHS Trust have still not had a first appointment an average of 88 weeks after being referred. The longest wait at the time the response was sent in January stood at 251 weeks – nearly five years. Meanwhile, 1,250 children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) referrals at the trust have yet to have a first appointment, having waited an average of 46 weeks – and 195 weeks in the worst case. Across 20 NHS trusts that provided figures, children with outstanding autism referrals have waited nearly six months on average for their first appointment. Cathy Pyle’s daughter, Eva, spent 20 months waiting for an autism assessment from her local NHS child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) in Surrey, having already had to wait 11 months for a mental health assessment after she became increasingly distressed during her first year of secondary school, culminating in self-harm. “The sensory aspects of her autism are really significant,” Pyle told the Observer. “So she found the crowding in the corridors, the jostling, being pushed and shoved – she found the noises really, really unbearable.” Dr Rosena Allin-Khan MP, Labour’s shadow cabinet minister for mental health, said: “The NHS does an incredible job with the resources that it has, however, long waits for treatment have a considerable impact on patients and families. It’s unacceptable that a six-month wait has become the standard for autism referrals, with many others waiting years to be seen, on the Conservatives’ watch. Waiting so long for treatment will have a detrimental impact on a child’s development.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 4 April 2022
  14. News Article
    Children and young people who are anxious, depressed or are self-harming are being denied help from swamped NHS child and adolescent mental health services, GPs have revealed. Even under-18s with an eating disorder or psychosis are being refused care by overstretched CAMHS services, which insist that they are not sick enough to warrant treatment. In one case, a crisis CAMHS team in Wales would not immediately assess the mental health of an actively suicidal child who had been stopped from jumping off a building earlier the same day unless the GP made a written referral. In another, a CAMHS service in eastern England declined to take on a 12-year-old boy found with a ligature in his room because the lack of any marks on his neck meant its referral criteria had not been met. The shocking state of CAMHS care is laid bare in a survey for the youth mental health charity stem4 of 1,001 GPs across the UK who have sought urgent help for under-18s who are struggling mentally. CAMHS teams, already unable to cope with the rising need for treatment before Covid struck, have become even more overloaded because of the pandemic’s impact on youth mental health. Mental health experts say young people’s widespread inability to access CAMHS care is leading to their already fragile mental health deteriorating even further and then self-harming, dropping out of school, feeling uncared for and having to seek help at A&E. “As a clinician it is particularly worrying that children and young people with psychosis, eating disorders and even those who have just tried to take their own life are condemned to such long waits”, said Dr Nihara Krause, a consultant clinical psychologist who specialises in treating children and young people and who is the founder of stem4. “It is truly shocking to learn from this survey of GPs’ experiences of dealing with CAMHS services that so many vulnerable young people in desperate need of urgent help with their mental health are being forced to wait for so long – up to two years – for care they need immediately. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 3 April 2022
  15. News Article
    Gynaecology waiting lists in England have risen by 60% during the pandemic - more sharply than any other specialty. Across the UK, more than 570,000 women are waiting for help. The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) said patients were "consistently deprioritised and overlooked". NHS England says hospitals are making progress on dealing with the Covid backlog and average waiting times for elective treatment are coming down. The RCOG is calling for much greater attention to women's views, and for care to be designed around their needs. Chetna Mistry says she is a "prisoner" to endometriosis, a painful condition in which tissue similar to the lining of the womb grows in other places, like the ovaries. She described it as "a whole-body disease which affects you physically and mentally". It has left her infertile, and, at 42, she needs a hysterectomy. Chetna said she was referred to a specialist in June 2020, but 21 months later still does not have a date for surgery. RCOG president Dr Edward Morris said he felt helpless not being able to speed up access to care for women and people on his waiting lists. "There is an element of gender bias in the system. I don't think believe that we are listening to voices of women as well as we should be. The priority they urgently need is not being given to them." The Royal College asked 830 women on waiting lists about the other impacts on their lives. Read full story Source: BBC News, 4 April 2022
  16. News Article
    Stroke and heart attack victims are now routinely waiting more than an hour for an ambulance, after a further fall in performance in recent weeks, and with hospital handover delays hitting a new high point, HSJ reveals. Figures for ambulance performance this week, seen by HSJ, showed average response times for category two calls at more than 70 minutes for successive days. 3,000 patients may have suffered “severe harm” from delays in February, ambulance chief executives say. Several well-placed sources in the sector said response times had deteriorated further this month, and that more than half of ambulance trusts were this week seeing average category two responses of longer than an hour. Some cited an average category two response last week of around 70 minutes, with the services under huge pressure from a combination of demand, long handover delays, and covid-related sickness. Category two calls include patients with suspected heart attacks and strokes, and the national target for reaching them is 18 minutes. The figures seen by HSJ for this week showed average response times for category one calls — the most serious, including cardiac arrests and other immediately life threatening emergencies — of more than 10 minutes on Wednesday, against a target of just 7 minutes. Monthly average performance for category one has never reached 10 minutes. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 1 April 2022
  17. News Article
    Public satisfaction with the NHS has dropped to its lowest level for 25 years after a sharp fall during the pandemic, a survey suggests. The British Social Attitudes poll, seen as the gold standard measure of public opinion, found 36% of the 3,100 asked were satisfied in 2021. That is a drop from 53% the year before - the largest fall in a single year. Only once have satisfaction levels been lower since the poll started in 1983. That was in 1997, and shortly after that the Blair government started increasing the budget by record amounts. The public said it was taking too long to get a GP appointment or hospital care, and there was not enough staff. Satisfaction with GP care and hospital services were both at their lowest levels since the survey began. Dan Wellings, senior fellow at the King's Fund, described them as "extraordinary". He said the NHS initially saw a "halo" effect early on in the pandemic, with satisfaction rates being maintained as the NHS battled through the first wave. But he said it was clear that had now gone. "People are often struggling to get the care they need. These issues have been exacerbated by the extraordinary events of the past two years, but have been many years in the making following a decade-long funding squeeze, and a workforce crisis that has been left unaddressed for far too long." Read full story Source: BBC News, 30 March 2022
  18. News Article
    Official draft guidance has encouraged trusts to grow their ‘private patient opportunities’, despite facing huge backlogs of NHS work. The NHS England document, leaked to HSJ, includes instructions to local leaders for the new financial year starting in April. It said: “Trusts should continue to actively explore and develop opportunities to grow their external (non-NHS) income… Private patient services continue to be a significant source of material opportunity in the NHS.” It adds that NHS England and NHS Improvement will work with trusts to “identify and scale-up NHS export opportunities and support development of private patient opportunities to generate revenue and provide benefits for NHS staff and local patients and services”. It comes as the NHS faces huge backlogs of elective patients waiting for treatment. NHSE’s own plan to recover from Covid said the waiting list could rise to 14 million, up from the current 6 million. Sally Gainsbury, senior policy analyst at the Nuffield Trust, said the guidance was “capitalising” on the surge in people paying for private treatment during the pandemic. Ms Gainsbury said: “It is a concern that with over 6 million patients on the NHS waiting list, NHS England is actively encouraging NHS trusts to expand their private patient activity." “Scarce NHS capacity should be focused and prioritised on treating NHS patients and bringing these unacceptable waits down, not capitalising on the growth in the private treatment market on the back of this unprecedented backlog of care.” Read full story Source: HSJ, 29 March 2022
  19. News Article
    Infection control rules in hospitals are ‘now disproportionate to the risks’ posed by covid and should be relaxed, some of the NHS’s most senior leaders have warned. The government rules – such as not allowing covid-positive staff to work, and separating out services for covid, non-covid and covid-contact patients – make a big dent in hospital capacity and slows down services. Glen Burley, who is chief executive of three Midlands trusts and involved in national-level discussions on elective matters, told HSJ: “Pretty much every pathway has a covid and non-covid route, which slows down flow and staff productivity. “There is a growing argument that these rules are now disproportionate to the risks. With covid cases in the community also rising now, we may have to question again the relative risks of continuing to isolate staff.” NHS Confederation director of policy Layla McCay told HSJ: “Healthcare leaders are concerned the current [IPC] measures are having a serious knock-on effect on capacity and that the measures in their current form are reducing efficiency and capacity within healthcare settings. “We need more clarity on if and how current measures can be safely adjusted so [the NHS] can further increase bed capacity and patient throughput, as well as the ability to transport patients more quickly and efficiently.” But NHS Providers, which has previously said relaxing the IPC guidance would not enable a “rapid” increase in the NHS’ capacity to tackle the elective care backlog and could pose significant “risks”, remains more cautious. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 21 March 2022
  20. News Article
    Patients waiting for surgery and cancer care in England will face long delays for years to come, MPs have warned in a new report that is highly critical of both ministers and NHS bosses. The already-record 6.1 million-strong waiting list for vital treatment will keep growing and officials are “too optimistic” that plans to tackle it will succeed, the public accounts committee (PAC) said in a report on Wednesday. “For the next few years it is likely that waiting time performance for cancer and elective care will remain poor and the waiting list for elective care will continue to grow,” it said. The committee of MPs, which monitors spending across Whitehall, acknowledges Covid-19’s role in contributing to the ballooning backlog and lengthening waiting times. But it singled out years of inaction by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) for particular blame. Patients waiting for surgery and cancer care in England will face long delays for years to come, MPs have warned in a new report that is highly critical of both ministers and NHS bosses. The already-record 6.1 million-strong waiting list for vital treatment will keep growing and officials are “too optimistic” that plans to tackle it will succeed, the public accounts committee (PAC) said in a report on Wednesday. “For the next few years it is likely that waiting time performance for cancer and elective care will remain poor and the waiting list for elective care will continue to grow,” it said. The committee of MPs, which monitors spending across Whitehall, acknowledges Covid-19’s role in contributing to the ballooning backlog and lengthening waiting times. But it singled out years of inaction by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) for particular blame. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 16 March 2022
  21. News Article
    The government has overseen years of decline in cancer care and non-urgent hospital services in England, MPs say. The House of Commons Public Accounts Committee said services had started deteriorating long before the pandemic. It pointed out key targets had not been met since 2016 and the pandemic had just exacerbated the problems. But ministers said they were investing extra money and creating more capacity to treat patients, to address the backlog that had now developed. More than six million people are currently on a hospital waiting list - one in nine of the population - the highest figure on record. This includes people waiting for operations such as knee and hip replacements. Meanwhile, just two-thirds of urgent cancer patients start treatment within the target time of 62 days. And the number of referrals for cancer care has dropped by between 240,000 and 740,000 since the pandemic started. The MPs said people would face serious health consequences because of delays in cancer treatment, with some dying earlier. The government is also accused of failing to recognise staffing the health service remains its biggest problem. The MPs said the workforce was crippled by shortages and exhausted by two years of the pandemic. Read full story Source: BBC News, 15 March 2022
  22. News Article
    The chief executive of three NHS trusts says ringfencing elective care within an acute hospital site is potentially more ‘productive’ than sending it to a separate ‘cold’ site. Glen Burley, who leads a “provider group” in the West Midlands, says his trusts have been grappling with the challenge of how to maximise elective activity without it being disrupted by emergency pressures. The conventional view – as outlined in the NHS long-term plan – is that performing more elective care on a separate site from emergency can help ensure theatre lists are not disrupted. But George Eliot Trust, which has been led by Mr Burley since 2018 and only has a single district general hospital, has created a “ringfenced” elective hub within the site. In an interview with HSJ, Mr Burley said: “So I actually think the most productive model in the NHS is if you can pull that off. “If you can actually protect your elective capacity and offer it on the same site [as] urgent care, so the clinicians are not having to move between sites, you’ve got optimal productivity. “The challenge right across the NHS has been avoiding that spillage, of emergency care into your elective capacity. “As you get busier and you escalate… the order in which you encroach into areas that you should not encroach into, is really key in that. We are saying we are going to protect our elective beds in a way that we haven’t done before." Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 14 March 2022
  23. News Article
    The number of referrals for specialist NHS mental health care reached a record high in England by the end of 2021, an analysis suggests. The Royal College of Psychiatrists says the pandemic has led to unprecedented demand and backlogs and services are struggling to keep up. There were 4.3 million referrals, for conditions such as anxiety and depression, in 2021, NHS Digital says. Just under a quarter - 1.025 million - were for children or adolescents. The college said the NHS had delivered 1.8 million mental health consultations in December 2021, but an estimated 1.4 million people were still waiting for treatment. And hundreds of adults were being sent far from home for treatment because of a lack of beds in their area. President Dr Adrian James said: "As the pressure on services continues to ratchet up, the silence from government continues to be of grave concern for the college, the wider mental health workforce and, most importantly, our patients. "The warning of the long tail of mental ill health caused by the pandemic has not been heeded. "Many thousands of people will be left waiting far too long for the treatment they need unless the government wakes up to the crisis that is engulfing the country. "Staff are working flat out to give their patients the support they need but the lack of resources and lack of staff mean it's becoming an impossible situation to manage... "...We need a fully funded plan for mental-health services, backed by a long-term workforce plan, as the country comes to terms with the biggest hit to its mental health in generations." Read full story Source: BBC News, 15 March 2022
  24. News Article
    The only NHS gender identity service for children in England and Wales is under unsustainable pressure as the demand for the service outstrips capacity, a review has found. The interim report of the Cass Review, commissioned by NHS England in 2020, recommends that a network of regional hubs be created to provide care and support to young people with gender incongruence or dysphoria, arguing their care is “everyone’s business”. Led by the paediatrician Hilary Cass, the interim report explains that the significant rise in referrals to the Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) at the Tavistock and Portman NHS foundation trust in London has resulted in overwhelmed staff and waiting lists of up to two years that leave young people “at considerable risk” of distress and deteriorating mental health. Last spring, the Care Quality Commission demanded monthly updates on numbers on waiting lists and actions to reduce them in a highly critical report on GIDS. Differing views and lack of open discussion about the nature of gender incongruence in childhood and adolescence – and whether transition is always the best option – means that patients can experience a “clinician lottery”, says the new review, which carried out extensive interviews with professionals and those with lived experience. It notes that the clinical approach used by GIDS “has not been subjected to some of the usual control measures” typically applied with new treatments. Another significant issue raised with the review team was that of “diagnostic overshadowing”, whereby once a young person is identified as having gender-related distress, other complex needs – such as neurodiversity or a mental health problem that would normally be managed by local services – can be overlooked. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 10 March 2022
  25. News Article
    Urgent action is required to tackle hospital waiting times on both sides of the Irish border, according to the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI). A report into the primary healthcare systems of Ireland and Northern Ireland found that both jurisdictions are experiencing similar problems. These include workforce shortages and increasing expenditure. On hospital waiting times the problem is worse in Northern Ireland. The proportion of people on the waiting list in Northern Ireland for more than one year increased from 20% to 60%. In the Republic of Ireland, during the same period between 2017 and 2021, the figure increased from 12% to 20%. A key distinction between the healthcare systems is the absence of a universal healthcare system in Ireland, write the authors. That means in Northern Ireland, all residents are entitled to a wide range of free health care services, while in Ireland, the majority pay to see their GP and for other services. But despite this key difference, both systems are currently facing similar challenges, including shortages in key areas of the workforce and long waits for a range of healthcare services. Cross-border collaboration in healthcare across the island is an interesting but contentious issue. At present, according to the ESRI report, that work is relatively limited. It points to a 2011 report which identified the potential benefits to be gained from increased co-operation in healthcare including collaboration in cystic fibrosis, ear, nose and throat surgery, paediatric cardiac surgery and acute mental health services. However, this 2022 report concludes that despite some notable exceptions such as the Congenital Heart Disease Network and the North West Cancer Centre at Altnagelvin Hospital in Londonderry, "collaboration has been relatively limited". Read full story Source: BBC News, 10 March 2022
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