Shropshire hospital waiting lists at new high
The number of patients facing waits of more than 18 weeks for routine treatment at Shropshire's hospitals soared to a record high in June amid the battle to keep Covid-19 at bay, new figures have revealed.
According to NHS rules, patients referred for non-urgent consultant-led elective care should start treatment within 18 weeks.
But non-urgent procedures had to be cancelled to free up beds during the pandemic, a move which created a huge backlog across the country.
NHS data shows 11,241 patients on the waiting list for elective operations or treatment at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH) at the end of June had been waiting longer than 18 weeks.
There were 4,046 patients in the same position at the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital (RJAH), near Oswestry.
It represented 49 per cent of those on the lists for both trusts, rising from just nine per cent the previous June at RJAH and from 13 per cent at SaTH, which runs Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and Princess Royal Hospital in Telford.
There were also 915 patients at Shropshire Community Health NHS Trust who faced waits of more than 18 weeks at the end of June – 29 per cent of those on the list.
Across the county, more than 300 patients were facing waits of more than a year.
Nationally, 1.9 million people were left in the same position of an over-18-week wait – the most for any month since records began in 2007. At nearly half of those on the waiting list, it was also the worst performance on record.
NHS trusts are normally expected to make sure no more than eight per cent of patients are left waiting beyond the 18-week maximum target.
Health bosses in Shropshire say they are in the process of restoring services, but The King's Fund think tank warns the “body blow” inflicted to NHS services by Covid-19 means patients could face long waits for months or even years to come.
Gbemi Babalola, senior analyst at the King’s Fund, warned: "The sheer scale of pent up demand for healthcare services, and the ongoing challenges facing staff during the pandemic mean there is a long and difficult road ahead.
“Health and care leaders are already bracing for an intense winter spike in demand, and patients should expect long waits for care to continue for many months and maybe years to come.”
NHS chief executive Sir Simon Stevens and chief operating officer Amanda Pritchard recently wrote to all NHS trusts and health providers outlining priorities for the coming months.
Among them are targets to recover the maximum elective activity possible between now and winter – something the county's health bosses have admitted is going to be challenging.
During a virtual meeting of the region's health scrutiny committee earlier this month, David Evans, joint accountable officer for Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin Clinical Commissioning Groups, said it was "an incredibly challenging time to be trying to restore services fully at the same time we've got winter coming".
Nigel Lee, chief operating officer at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust, told the meeting that work had been taking place to try and access additional capital and support.
RJAH yesterday announced it would be resuming routine MRI, CT and ultrasound scans.
The trauma service, which was also relocated to the county’s orthopaedic hospital during the pandemic, could be moving back to Royal Shrewsbury Hospital in the near future and a funding bid has been made to NHS bosses to erect modular buildings at Shropshire’s major hospitals to be used as extra ward and theatre space. It follows a reduction in beds due to social distancing.
SaTH has also been able to bring an additional CT scanner onto the Princess Royal Hospital site temporarily, and to re-establish services it has set up a number of groups to look at individual areas including diagnostics and screening, outpatients, urgent treatment and cancer and women’s and children’s services.
Affected
The move is aimed at allowing services affected by the coronavirus outbreak to be restored. Services restored already include fertility, gynaecology, bowel, breast and abdominal aortic aneurysm screening.
It was also revealed earlier this month that SaTH would get £2 million as part of a £300m investment announced by the Government to help the NHS prepare for winter.
The trust intends to use the money to convert the former Wrekin midwife-led unit into a ‘priorities admission unit’, which will help to ease pressure on A&E.
An NHS spokesman said: "Now that the NHS has managed the first wave of coronavirus, there is an important job to do to help people whose planned care was postponed to protect their own safety, and that’s exactly what local health services are doing, while also remaining ready for any future increase in Covid cases.”
