Hospitals halve number of patients waiting 2 years for surgery – but NHS list is still rising
HOSPITALS have halved the number of patients waiting two years for surgery.
NHS figures for England show the 104-week wait list shrank from 23,778 in January to 9,146 last week.
Long-waiters are top priority for medics, who hope to clear all 24-month delays by the end of July and 18-month waits by April 2023.
Health Secretary Sajid Javid told The Sun: “We are determined to do everything we can to tackle the Covid backlog and I am delighted we are already making good progress.”
Thirty-eight NHS trusts now have zero patients on their long list as the national total fell by 59 per cent by May 22.
But 99 trusts still have cases that stretch back to 2020 or earlier – some with more than 900 such patients.
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Saffron Cordery, chief of NHS Providers, said: “The hard work of our NHS staff is paying off but there’s still a long way to go.”
Medics warn the overall list of people waiting for NHS treatment is still growing fast.
There are a record 6.4million people in England due routine operations – 11 per cent of the population.
Many will languish in pain because of delays and backlogs worsened by the Covid pandemic and staff shortages.
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Dr Andrew Goddard, president of the Royal College of Physicians, said: “Hospital teams have been working beyond normal hours to focus on the longest waiters.
“We must not celebrate too soon, though, as the rest of the waiting list is proving very difficult to address and seems to be going the wrong way.
“It is going to be a very hard few years to get the backlog sorted.”
Professor Stephen Powis, NHS medical director, added: “NHS staff have been working flat out to ensure that people who have been waiting the longest are now getting care.
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“Their huge efforts over the past few weeks mean that we have halved the number of people waiting two years for treatment since we published our blueprint to address Covid backlogs.
“This is the biggest, most ambitious catch up programme in the NHS’s history.”