Surgeons warn of patient pain from delays to surgery

Doctors fear lives will be cut short amid widespread wait for operations

PATIENTS will be forced to endure pain, disability and could even see their lives cut short by increasing waiting times for routine operations under measures aimed to cut costs, surgeons have warned.

NHS officials have introduced new limits which mean patients in some parts of the country will be made to wait at least three months for routine surgery, such as hip operations and cardiac procedures.

The Royal College of Surgeons last night attacked the move, raising fears that other areas of Britain could follow suit in a desperate attempt to cut costs and push spending into a new financial year.

The measures, which have been introduced in Lincolnshire, mean instead of waiting an average of seven and a half weeks for operations, patients will have to wait at least a month longer before they can have any routine operations. Cancer surgery and emergency cases are excluded from the restrictions.

Other areas have previously discussed introducing such measures, but have held off, after they were met with a backlash from patients groups and surgeons.

The only area which previously tried to bring in a minimum waiting time ditched the policy in November after it was widely condemned.

Cambridgeshire and Peterborough clinical commissioning group (CCG) abandoned the plans after just two months having projected they would save £600,000. But Freedom of Information disclosures reveal that NHS South West Lincolnshire CCG has now introduced such measures.

Prof Neil Mortensen, vice president of the Royal College of Surgeons, urged health officials to think again, warning that forcing patients to endure ever longer waits would mean conditions would worsen, in some cases cutting lives short.

“Delaying elective treatment unnecessarily not only subjects patients to excessive pain and discomfort, but can also allow certain conditions to deteriorate, becoming life-limiting or even life-threatening,” the senior surgeon warned.

“We recognise the significant financial pressures facing some CCGs,” he said.

“However introducing an

‘An extremely shortsighted attempt to save money in the short term’

arbitrary minimum waiting time for surgery is unlikely to save money in the long term and raises serious professional and ethical issues.”

He urged NHS England to step in and tell the NHS South West Lincolnshire CCG that minimum waiting times were not acceptable.

“We are worried this is the thin end of the wedge, that other areas are likely to follow these measures, in an extremely short sighted attempt to save money in the short term.

“These operations will still happen, it’s just an attempt to push the spending into another year,” Prof Mortensen said.

As a result, too many patients would be left in “unrelenting pain” and misery.

“Some of these situations are appallingly painful,” he said.