Number of patients waiting over six months for surgery up 40%
The number of patients waiting more than six months for surgery in England was 40 percent higher in September than the same month last year, according to analysis by the Royal College of Surgeons (RCS).
The 151,710 people waiting more than six months for hip or knee replacements, cataract removal, hernia repair and other nonurgent operations in September was also five percent up on August, The Guardian reported.
The RCS analysis of the National Health Service (NHS performance data, also found that 21,033 patients were waiting at least nine months for surgery, 59 percent up on September last year.
The increases come after the NHS all but abandoned the longrunning target for 92 percent of patients to be referred within 18 weeks. At the time, the RCS accused it of ‘waving the white flag’.
Commenting on the latest figures, RCS’S president, Prof Derek Alderson, said: “It is clear that the NHS is under mounting pressure. Waiting several months for treatment could have a serious impact on a patient’s quality of life and the effectiveness of their eventual surgery.
“What is most concerning is this rise comes before pressures on the NHS are expected to increase this winter. With bed capacity expected to be at a premium due to continuing issues with social care, some patients needing non-urgent surgery this winter simply will not enter an operating theater until the spring.”
The NHS data showed that the proportion of patients in England being referred for a non-urgent operation within 18 weeks hit its lowest level since February 2011, at 89.1 percent.
The number of patients waiting more than 18 weeks for referral to treatment was 20 percent compared with the same period last year to 417,771 , and there was an increase of 50 percent in the number waiting more than a year to 1,778.
Alderson said: “With the 18-week waiting time target already deprioritized, and Simon Stevens saying that without an increase in funding, waiting time targets may have to be abolished, we are concerned that before long waiting six months for non-urgent surgery may begin to become the norm.
“Funding is simply not keeping up with patient demand, and although there is scope for the NHS to be more efficient, efficiency savings alone will not ensure patients are treated in the timely and safe manner that is expected of the NHS.”
The A&E stats for October, also published on Thursday, made for better reading. Attendances at hospital A&E departments were up slightly by 0.9 percent on the same month last year, but the proportion of patients seen within four hours was 84.9 percent, up from 84.6 percent in September and 83.7 percent in October last year.
There was also a drop in ‘delayed transfers of care’, when patients are fit to leave but cannot be safely discharged, which impedes hospitals’ ability to cope with new patients.
The number of delayed days in September was 168,300, down 14 percent on the same period last year, the largest year-on-year reduction since records began. It was also the lowest level since April last year when there were 168,018 delayed days.