More than 500 patients wait two years for treatment

And 6,500 face delays of over a year for elective procedures

HUNDREDS of residents are now waiting more than two years for planned treatment after the covid pandemic took its toll.

Thousands more patients face delays of over a year for elective procedures, a health boss has revealed to Staffordshire County Council members. And issues also remain around meeting cancer diagnosis and treatment targets.

Marcus Warnes, Staffordshire and Stoke on Trent CCGS’ (Clinical Commissioning Groups’) accountable officer, said: “We were making really good progress of recovery up until winter, but we’ve had some real challenges since then.

“I think it’s fair to say that we’re not alone – across the country there are some real ongoing challenges, particularly around elective and cancer recovery.

“Pre-covid, I had no patients anywhere in any hospital that waited more than 52 weeks for an elective procedure. As of the latest validated data, we’ve got 6,500.

“And in terms of 104-week waits – people waiting over two years for treatment – we had none of those either pre-pandemic. We’ve now got over 500 across our providers and some particular challenges at UHNM (University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust).

“There are some national targets we have to hit, for example no 104-week waits by July. Whilst we are making progress, we are struggling on some of that.”

Committee member Keith Flunder asked: “How are you going to try and improve the trend at the moment in relation to some of these 52-week waits and some of the breast cancer elements, when they are still 25 to 30 per cent below where your targets have been set? In reality, these are people’s lives.”

Mr Warnes responded: “The situation is this is going to take years, not months. On over 52-week waits we are making progress – not as quickly as we would like because there are still people coming through the door and being added to the backlog.

“These are people, not statistics, who have lives to lead and are worried, anxious, concerned. The consequences of this are going beyond reds and greens on a dashboard.”

He added that one of the issues was around cancer diagnostics, and there was also a shortage of staff.

He said: “Patients with suspected cancer are referred through the twoweek pathway, which means the GP needs to get the results back so they can decide what to do next.

“People who have a suspected cancer then need to receive their first definitive treatment within 31 days, and the whole pathway has to be completed in 62 days – that’s two months from a referral through to a first definitive treatment.

“Given all the other pressures in the system and just how pressured our workforce is, that’s proving a very difficult pathway to deliver on.

“A huge amount of resources is being thrown at addressing that, but we’re not where we want to be yet. That will take some months before we get into a position where we’re, if not fully back to where we were pre-pandemic, in a better position than we’re seeing at the moment.”

Health scrutiny committee chairman Councillor Jeremy Pert said: “We need a discussion on workforce because we will continue to have the same discussions for the next 20 years if we’re not careful.

“We need to see what plans all providers have, both in social care and within the NHS, to bring people in and keep people within the system.”