Surgery delayed by lack of same-day virus checks

SURGERY waiting lists are soaring because of a lack of same-day cororanvirus tests, surgeons have said.

The Royal College of Surgeons of England said more than one million people were waiting in excess of 18 weeks for hospital treatment.

Despite this, its survey of 1,741 UK surgeons found that 32.5 per cent said elective or planned surgery had not been possible at their hospital trust at any time in the past four weeks.

A third of those who reported being unable to restart surgery (33.4 per cent) said a lack of access to rapid Covid-19 tests for patients was to blame.

It comes just a month after NHS England outlined how elective surgery should safely be able to resume.

Prof Derek Alderson, president of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, said the speed at which results could be returned was a “crucial factor” in restarting elective surgery.

He said: “The aim should be for surgeons to have access to same-day test results, so that they can test patients both before and on admission, and again upon discharge – nine in 10 surgeons we asked agree.”

If patients receive

aCovid-19 test result on the same day of their surgery and have isolated, surgeons will be able to proceed with “greater confidence”, Prof Alderson said.

The survey, carried out between June 8-15, found that just 10 per cent of surgeons could get test results for surgical patients within eight hours, while 31 per cent could get results within 24 hours.

However, a further 34 per cent said they could get results within 48 hours, and 13 per cent said they could within 72 hours.

While testing was not the only barrier preventing elective surgery, the college said it was “likely the fastest to solve”.

Some 46 per cent of survey respondents said a “lack of capacity” in areas such as diagnostics, anaesthesia and sterile processing had prevented them from restarting surgery, while 35 per cent said it was due to a lack of staff.