Surgeons warn of difficult winter for waiting patients
The Royal College of Surgeons of England has warned that a ‘very difficult’ winter lies ahead as new figures show a record 7.21m people are waiting for planned care.
Progress has been made on reducing the longest NHS waits – 1,907 people were waiting more than two years for hospital treatment in October 2022, down from 23,778 in January 2022, the all-time high.
The next target set out in the Government’s Elective Recovery Plan is to eliminate waits of 18 months or more by April 2023, but figures show slow progress towards this target.
Although there was a small reduction in the number of people waiting 18 months or more (50,124 for October, compared to 50,780 in September), the 18-month waiting figure has been stuck at above 50,000 patients for the past few months.
Meanwhile, the total waiting list and the number of people waiting a year or more for planned care continues to rise. In October 2022, 410,983 patients were waiting a year or more for planned hospital treatment. This is 98,318 more than a year ago; in October 2021, 312,665 patients were waiting 52 weeks or more.
Using independent sector
A new Government initiative announced last week, the ‘Elective Recovery Taskforce’, will try to reduce waiting times for NHS patients by using additional capacity in the independent sector.
As we also report today, the taskforce is looking at how collaboration between the NHS and independent sector can be improved, so that the NHS can make more use of independent sector capacity.
Mr Tim Mitchell
Mr Tim Mitchell, consultant ENT surgeon, and vice president of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, said: ‘We are concerned that a very difficult winter lies ahead, with hospitals full of patients, flu and Covid-19, and increased pressure on emergency departments.
‘We also face the prospect of industrial action by staff who are burnt-out and feel undervalued.’
He said the college welcomed the Government’s plans to help the NHS make use of capacity in the independent sector to reduce waits for NHS patients. But it was the same depleted workforce who would be treating patients there.
‘The Government urgently needs to publish its workforce strategy. It can tinker around the edges of the NHS, but if we do not have enough staff to meet patient demand, existing vacancies will only get worse, putting remaining staff under more pressure. In surgery, the reality is that, without more nurses and anaesthetic staff to support surgeons in theatre, we will struggle to bring record waiting lists down this winter and beyond.’
The Government’s elective recovery plan can be read here: C1466-delivery-plan-for-tackling-the-covid-19-backlog-of-elective-care.pdf.