Waiting times are slashed but delays continue at hospital

HORRENDOUS waiting times have been slashed at Hinckley’s nearest hospital – but 1,500 patients may still have to wait months to be treated.

Extra sessions, including at weekends, have been put on at the George Eliot Hospital in Nuneaton to try and tackle the huge backlog of almost 13,000 patients waiting for Referral to Treatment.

This huge figure has, according to John Thompson, director of operations at the Eliot, now been reduced to around 1,500.

However, there has been no further word from the hospital about when the remaining 1,500 will actually be treated.

“We are making progress with the backlog,” Mr Thompson said.

“By putting on extra sessions we have reduced the number of people waiting longer than 18 weeks to around 1,500 and we have a plan in place to treat all the patients affected.”

He concluded: “If anyone has concerns Trust.”

It was back in October when the extent of the RTT waiting list was revealed and it was feared that people who need Trauma and Orthopaedics (T&O) treatment may have to wait until July 2018.

Delays did not just hit T&0, there were a total of ‘seven key specialists’ including gynae, general surgery, urology, pain, oral surgery and Ears Nose and Throat, known as ENT.

At the time John Thompson explained that the situation please contact the reached crisis point when the hospital went live with the Lorenzo patient record systems.

“This was an issue that arose out of our change in terms of IT systems. The impact of that has resulted in the doubling of patients onto our waiting list,” he said.

“We are working with the consultants and have given them a number of patients to review, all of the patients standing on the list over 30 weeks, to make sure there is no harm. We have also agreed a plan in terms of additional capacity, we need to address the issue across the key specialities because this is really affecting seven key specialities.”

Board member Duncan Cooper asked if ‘all options’ had been explored in terms of trying to reduce the backlog, including using outside sources.

“There is the option of going to outside providers, it is getting them fully aligned to the challenge we have ahead, the referral rates into the service are probably outstripping what we can supply,” admitted John Thompson.