‘Some OAPs waiting for ops might be better off without’

SOME elderly patients waiting for operations might be better off not having them, a health board was told.

Dr Richard Evans, medical director at Swansea Bay University Health Board, quoted a paper in medical journal The Lancet which looked at outcomes for patients – particular men over 70 – for certain procedures.

“The authors went as far as to suggest that it might even be better if these people didn’t have these things done for now,” he said.

Defining what “harm” meant, he said, had become very complicated.

“We are in a huge period of uncertainty, where bringing people into hospital for these procedures may not turn out to be the right thing to do.”

Like all health boards, Swansea Bay battened down the hatches in preparation for coronavirus cases but now has more people who have been waiting a long time for outpatient appointments and planned operations.

The overall number of patients waiting, though, hasn’t changed that much because referrals from GPs dropped sharply.

Dr Evans said: “There may well end up being conversations about whether we should even do some of these things and whether they should be performed, even if that means the outcome is different.

“The harm reduction discussion is extremely challenging and I think we may find that that evolves.”

As of May this year 9,300 people were waiting over 26 weeks for an outpatient appointment – a rise of 69% on the previous year – while the rise in 36-week and 52-week waiting-times for treatment was 23% and 22% respectively.

One issue, said chief operating officer Chris White, was that staffing requirements for operating theatres had nearly trebled compared to before the coronavirus, with patients needing more extensive pre-op assessments.

More intensive cleaning is also required.

Theatre productivity, said Mr White, had dropped by 50%.

Figures have also shown that fewer non-urgent cancer cases were starting treatment within 31 days of diagnosis than before the pandemic.

The picture for urgent and single pathway cancer cases was broadly in line with pre-March levels at Singleton and Neath Port Talbot hospitals but had deteriorated at Morriston Hospital.