Shropshire hospital waiting lists top 40,000 as NHS remains under strain

Waits across the country continue to grow to record levels, while the county's hospitals, Royal Shrewsbury (RSH), Princess Royal in Telford (PRH), and the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital in Oswestry (RJAH), all have significant backlogs.

They remain under significant pressure, and only last Friday, Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH) – which manages RSH and PRH – was so busy it had to declare a 'critical incident'.

The situation has been worsened by the impact of Covid restrictions, and county health bosses have said they are working hard to cut waiting lists – including using private hospitals.

Treatments delayed include scans and tests, hip and knee operations, and cataract surgery.

The most recent figures, from December, show that 31,226 patients were waiting for non-urgent elective operations or treatment at SaTH at the end of December, up from 28,161 the year before.

At RJAH 12,956 patients were waiting at the end of December – up from 10,937 the previous year.

Health Secretary Sajid Javid has set out plans to help the NHS recover from Covid-19, but said waiting lists will continue to rise for another two years.

Across England, 6.07 million people were waiting to start treatment at the end of December – up from six million in November, and the highest number since records began in August 2007.

Of them, 311,000 had been waiting longer than a year – 39 per cent more than in December 2020.

The Government and NHS England have set an ambition of eliminating all waits of more than a year by March 2025.

Measures announced by the Government to tackle issues within the health service, include prioritising diagnosis and treatment, increasing activity through dedicated surgical hubs, and hiring 15,000 more care workers by the end of March.

NHS national medical director Professor Stephen Powis said: “While pressures remain for our staff, with the highest number of life-threatening ambulance callouts and 111 calls for the month of January, NHS staff are committed to bringing down the backlog, and the clear plan published this week will help increase the number of checks, tests and treatment provided for patients.”

Simon Whitehouse, chief executive designate for the Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin Integrated Care Board, said all parts of the county's health system were working to cut waiting lists.

“We are working hard as a health and care system to bring down our waiting lists for planned treatment," he said.

“Our situation is no different to that across the country, and the NHS as a whole has seen significant pressure on its services as a result of the steps we have had to take to respond to the coronavirus pandemic.

"We appreciate that is no comfort to anyone waiting to get the treatment they need, and I assure them that we are doing all we can to get to them as quickly as we can – making sure we prioritise by clinical need so that those who need treatment the most are seen first.

“We continue to see Covid patients within our hospitals, but that does not stop us from progressing and evolving our recovery plans.

"All of our providers are pulling out all the stops to increase capacity, whilst being considerate to the health and wellbeing of our own staff. We are also working with independent sector partners to help us see more patients.”

New North Shropshire MP Helen Morgan has condemned the Government's “lack of action”, saying medics and NHS managers need resources in place to help with winter pressures and the ongoing backlog in waiting lists for treatment and operations.

Ms Morgan said “I’ve held meetings with the leaders of our key health care services, and despite having sensible long-term plans to sort out the issues here, they just don’t have the resources to fight the immediate crisis.

“I asked Sajid Javid for a meeting to find a way forward on my first day in Parliament, but he hasn’t bothered to respond.

“I have written again today in the light of the incident declared on Friday, and reports on social media of ambulances queuing for hours outside A&E to hand over patients because of it.

“Before this incident was declared last week an elderly constituent of mine waited 17 hours for an ambulance with a broken leg. It’s totally unacceptable.

“This is a situation with complex causes – and declining Covid cases aren’t going to make this problem magically disappear overnight. We need funds and staff now to reduce the crisis, and a commitment to ensure the long term plans being made can be put into action quickly.”