Long waits for hospital operations soar

The latest NHS England figures show that the disruption to hospitals during the pandemic has meant the number of patients facing long waits for routine operations has soared.

The data indicates that 2.2 million people on the waiting list, representing half the total, have been waiting longer than 18 weeks, with a worrying one in five waiting more than a year. Treatment is meant to start in 18 weeks.

Before the pandemic, three times fewer people were waiting. Some 83,000 have waited more than a year, which, before the pandemic, stood at less than 2,000.

Saffron Cordery, of NHS Providers, said frontline staff were ‘working hard’ to restore services. She said the need for extra cleaning and constantly changing in and out of protective equipment meant it took longer than it did in the past to see and treat patients.

The NHS England data also shows that treatments happening in hospitals is on the increase. More than 140,000 operations such as knee and hip replacements were carried out in July, up from 41,000 in April when routine treatments were more of less cancelled. However, this is still less than half the level seen in the same month last year.

The numbers coming to A&E topped 1.7 million in August, up from a low of 916,000 in April at the peak of the pandemic.

Additionally, nearly 21,600 cancer patients started their treatment in July, up from 16,600 in May. This is down from 28,000 in the same month last year.

Tim Gardner, Senior Policy Fellow at the Health Foundation, said: “Today's figures represent a significant milestone, with the highest number of people receiving A&E and planned treatment since March when the lockdown began. This is testimony to the hard work of NHS staff, and their determination to return services to normal as much as possible.

“But the figures also show that normality is still a long way off and there is a growing backlog of unmet health care need. If people do not get treatment when they need it, we will be storing up more serious health problems for the future. The government and health services must continue to do everything they can to ensure people feel safe and supported to use the NHS when they need it.”