Bosses ‘sorry’ as hospital waits hit record high
WAITING times at the NHS hospital trust which covers Rochdale has hit a record high.
At Northern Care Alliance, which runs four hospitals - Rochdale Infirmary, Salford Royal Hospital, The Royal Oldham Hospital and Fairfield Hospital - there were 134,981 people waiting for routine treatment at the end of March, with 46.7% waiting more than 18 weeks.
Among those, 6,792 had been waiting more than a year, up from 6,234 in January, and 430 had been waiting more than two years up from 357, a record high.
In A&E, of those admitted in March 59.5% waited less than four hours, a record low.
However, of those admitted, 452 people waited more than 12 hours for a ward bed.
The Northern Care Alliance said they were ‘really sorry’ for the amount of time some patients have had to wait.
Jude Adams, chief delivery officer for the Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust, said: “Treating patients who have waited the longest is a key priority for all hospitals across Greater Manchester.
“Due to the pandemic, the Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust, like a number of hospitals in the region, have a number of patients who have waited over two years for a variety of planned and non-urgent treatment, many of whom have particularly complex medical conditions or require additional support to have treatment.
“We are really sorry for this length of time some patients have had to wait.
“Our initial focus is to ensure we treat these patients wherever possible before the end of June.
“We are working with our partners across Greater Manchester to identify ways that we can increase the number of treatments for patients who have been waiting the longest whilst balancing the needs of those who are clinically urgent.”
BMA council chair Dr
Chaand Nagpaul said that last month was the busiest at English A&ES since January 2020, with 2.17 million attendances.
He added that the levels of pressure are ‘unprecedented’.
NHS National Medical Director Professor Stephen Powis said: “Nobody should be under any illusion about how tough a job NHS staff have on their hands, balancing competing priorities and maintaining high quality patient care. Despite pressure on various fronts and the busiest winter ever for the NHS, long waits fell as staff continue to tackle two-year waits by July thanks to the innovative approaches to care they are now adopting - from same day hip replacements to dedicated mobile hubs for operations.”
Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, which represents health organisations, said the NHS was putting the additional investment from the levy to good use with clear progress being made in tackling the elective care backlog.
He highlighted delays with discharging patients who are well enough to go home but where there isn’t the social care support they need in place, the need to keep Covid patients separate and the impact that has on capacity, and staff shortages, both vacancies and numbers off due to Covid.
‘Nobody should be under any illusion about how tough a job NHS staff have on their hands’