Quarter of people with cancelled operations still waiting a month later

AROUND a quarter of people who had planned operations cancelled at NHS trusts across Derbyshire earlier this year were still waiting a month later.

NHS rules state that any patient who has a pre-arranged operation cancelled at the last minute for non-clinical reasons should be offered another slot within 28 days.

Cancellations could be due to a lack of beds, surgeons and other clinical staff being unavailable, or emergency cases taking priority.

However, the number of postponed procedures not being completed within four weeks has surged since the start of the coronavirus pandemic as hospital resources have been drained.

There is now a battle to tackle a huge backlog of non-covid related care. In the three months to March, 167 planned operations across two NHS trusts covering Derbyshire were cancelled at the last minute, meaning on the day the patient was due to arrive, after they arrived or on the day of the procedure.

Of those, 45 (26.9%) were still not treated within 28 days – compared with 10.5% during the same three months of 2019, the most recent period with comparable figures.

Separate NHS data shows the total waiting list for routine treatment rose to 6.36 million in March – compared to 4.24 million in March 2020 – at least partly driven by more people coming forward for treatment after numbers dropped dramatically at the height of the pandemic.

While the number of people waiting more than a year for elective treatment rose slightly in March, to 306,286, the number waiting more than two years fell by more than 6,000 between February and March, to 16,796.