NHS patient’s 812 days on waiting list as delays ‘spiral out of control’

PATIENTS are waiting more than two years for routine operations, an investigation has found.

The average wait at NHS hospitals is two weeks longer than a year ago, despite health service rules saying they should be treated within 18 weeks.

The average wait for a knee replacement in 016-17 was 114 days – nearly four months – compared to 100 days in

015-16. For hip replacements, the average wait was 108 days, up from 96.

Figures obtained through Freedom of Information laws show patients are routinely waiting more than a year for hip, knee, cataract, hernia, gallstone or tonsil procedures.

In the worst example, a patient at Derby Teaching Hospitals waited 81 days – two years and three months – to have their tonsils out. At Weston Area Health Trust in Somerset, a patient waited 7 0 days for a knee replacement.

More than 40 per cent of hospitals said at least one patient had waited a year or more before eventually having surgery in 016-17. Under the NHS Constitution, patients have a right to be treated within 18 weeks. In theory, anyone waiting longer could sue their hospital – although this has never happened.

Last week, Simon Stevens, the head of the NHS, warned that 5 million patients – one in ten – would be languishing on hospital waiting lists by 0 1.

Shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth said waiting times were ‘spiralling out of control’, adding: ‘Wards are over-full and understaffed and the standards people can expect from the NHS get worse with every year of this Government.’

Caroline Abrahams, of Age UK, said: ‘Having to wait a long time for an operation may not only condemn an older person to misery and pain, it can also undermine their resilience and make it harder for them to sustain their independence.’