GP referrals awaiting hospital treatment up by 50pc in two years

THE number of patients unable to get a hospital appointment after being referred by their GP is up more than 50 per cent in two years amid the record NHS backlog, official data show.

Figures from NHS Digital show no appointments were immediately available for 2.3million referrals made in the first six months of this year, up 51 per cent on the same period in 2020 (1.5million). Every month, on average, almost 400,000 referrals were recorded as having an “appointment slot issue” (ASI) between January and June this year, compared to 220,000 in the same period in 2020.

These occur when patients are referred by their GP through the NHS e-referral Service, but no appointment is available to book.

The referral is then forwarded or deferred to a patient’s chosen provider.

But if an appointment is not made by the provider within 180 days, it will automatically be removed from the sys- tem, according to NHS Digital.

Patient safety campaigners have warned the scale of the problem must be “urgently investigated” by NHS England to ensure patient safety is not being compromised while they wait for an appointment. GPS have claimed patients with complex needs are being pushed back into primary care due to a lack of capacity in hospitals.

The NHS Digital website says: “Appointment slot issues compound waits by creating a backlog of patients whose waiting time has already started, creates a significant amount of avoidable administrative work and can cause patient safety issues [...].”

ASIS can risk patients being “missed” from trusts’ lists, or have an incorrect start time recorded for their referral to treatment wait time, it adds.

The Royal College of GPS warned earlier this year there was a risk of patients “simply disappearing” from lists if the issue was not dealt with, the Health Service Journal reported.

NHS England stressed patients are not removed from the official waiting list when they are categorised as an ASI, or after the 180-day cut-off time.

Dr Gary Howsam, vice-chairman of the Royal College of GPS, said: “It is unacceptable if patients find themselves back to square one due to delays that are no fault of their own.”

It comes as a record 6.6 million patients are now waiting to start treatment after being referred.

An NHS spokesman said: “The NHS delivers tens of millions of outpatient appointments every year, while the latest figures show that there was a record number of diagnostic checks and tests in May – with hard-working staff pulling out all the stops to cut waiting times for patients across all areas.”