Non-urgent hospital admissions drop by 725,000

Approximately 725,000 fewer people were admitted to English hospitals for non-urgent treatment in March and April than would normally be the case.

Sir Simon Stevens, the chief executive of NHS England, told the Commons Health Select Committee that, at its lowest point, the number of elective admissions for procedures such as cataract removals, hernia repairs, or hip or knee operations, fell to about 25 per cent of the anticipated level, highlighting how the pressure imposed on hospitals by the coronavirus pandemic has affected other patients.

In the case of cancer treatment, Stevens said there had been a drop-off in referrals in March and April, but the proportion of treatments being started remained high (96 per cent) relative to what would usually be expected.

Regarding elective admissions, Stevens said he expected activity to be at approximately 75 per cent by July or August. Discussing the backlog of treatment, Stevens said that he thinks, contrary to some of the commentary, that ‘the waiting list will go down before it goes up, potentially significantly’.

He said: “The number of elective admissions in March and April was around 725,000, lower than what we might have expected given pre-covid levels of growth. The drop was greatest in April when there were around 530,000 fewer elective episodes. That number has begun to recover quite significantly since then and as we speak we think we’re now somewhere north of 55 per cent of pre-covid elective activity levels.”

Experts three NHS trusts in England have previously suggested that the interruption to treatment could cause the number of patients waiting for a planned operation to rise sharply from 4.2 million to as many as 10 million by the end of the year.