66,000 awaiting treatment
Almost 1,500 now on hospital list for more than a year
THE active waiting list at Leicester’s hospitals stands at more than 66,000.
Of those patients, almost 1,500 have waited for more than a year for treatment, mainly due to coronavirusrelated delays.
The high number of people waiting longer than 52 weeks for care will have a “significant impact on patient care for the foreseeable future,” University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust said in a report.
At a trust board meeting, Colonel Ian Crowe, a non-executive director, said: “I’d like to draw the board’s attention to the referral to treatment figures.
“I know the staff are working very hard to bring those figures down and back under control.
“It’s important we clear we are open business and that avoid any ‘do not attends’ and that we try and get patients through the system as quickly as possible so we bring back some normality.”
A report to the board said the waiting list was “currently 66,082”.
It said: “The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic has led the referral to treatment positioning reducing over the upcoming months as non-essential activity is cancelled to reduce footfall on the hospital site. This is likely to continue until elective work is resumed.
“Since the beginning of March, there has been a significant increase in the percentage of outpatients being treated through telephone consultations.
“This is now at 57 per cent with a trust target of achieving 70 per cent.”
NHS England set an operational standard to ensure no one waits more than 52 weeks for treatment. At the end of June there were 1,495 patients who had been waiting more than 52 weeks on referral to treatment pathways.
Urgent care and priority cancer treatment has continued.
The report said: “There are a very limited number of theatre lists running due to the requirement of additional intensive therapy unit capacity.
“All non-urgent elective work has been cancelled, which has led to a number of 52-week breaches.
“This is set to grow significantly over the next few months until the organisation is able to commence doing elective work again.
“Between March and June we are expecting to have about 1,200 52-week breaches.
“This will have a significant impact on patient care for the foreseeable future and in turn on UHL’s performance against national targets.”
In March, the trust had met the 52-week target for 20 consecutive months.
Mark Wightman, director of strategy, told colleagues: “If there is a key message we are trying to get across from Leicester’s hospitals, apart from how we keep our colleagues safe, it’s the fact we are absolutely open for business.”
He said that social media campaigns and letters were being sent to patients telling them: “Don’t be afraid to come into hospital, the infection rates in hospitals are really low and we want to see you if you need some kind of urgent care.”