Waiting lists creep up
Covid-19 has forced non-urgent surgery to be postponed
THE AVERAGE wait for surgery at public hospitals in the Valencia region was 125 days in December 2020, five days longer than the 120 days recorded the month before.
The announcement by the regional health department acknowledged that the difficulties resulting from the coronavirus pandemic have required many operations to be postponed, because all available health workers and hospital beds are required to treat patients on wards or in intensive care.
The total number of patients on waiting lists for surgery amounts to 59,838. The increased wait was ‘inevitable’, according to regional secretary for health efficiency Concha
Andrés, ‘as the pandemic has forced surgery that is not urgent or deferrable to be postponed due to the current high incidence of Covid patients’.
This increased pressure has reversed the downward trend in waiting lists that had been recorded over the previous months.
“Non-deferrable operations are all being attended to in public hospitals with the collaboration of private hospitals,” she assured.
“During those months when there was a relief in the pandemic and the pressure on care was not so great, the delay was reduced thanks to the efforts made by the public hospital network’s healthcare and nonhealthcare personnel, and thanks also to the hospitals and clinics which collaborated with the emergency plan to operate on people with clinical priority.”
The health department has funding assigned in this year’s budget for its overtime programme, its emergency plan and to reinforce personnel for surgery.
Sra Andrés said this means that, once the healthcare situation returns to normal after the pandemic, ‘these programmes will help to reduce the delay and guarantee prompt attention to patients who are on the waiting list’.
According to the data, the waits for surgery by speciality are: cardiovascular (65 days), general (102), maxillofacial
(121), orthopaedic and traumatology (161), paediatric (148), plastic (197), thoracic (157), vascular (85), dermatology (88), gynaecology-obstetrics (118), neurology (162), ophthalmology (86), otorhinolaryngology (135), and urology (125).
By condition, they are: adenotonsillectomy (157 days), arthoroscopy
(147), cataracts (76), cholecystectomy (80), phimosis (127), hallux valgus (114), inguinal or femoral hernia (82), benign prostatic hyperplasia (107), hip prosthesis (132), knee prosthesis (143), pilonidal cyst (74), carpal tunnel (80), and varicose veins (84).