Covid drives big delays in elective surgery in county
THE coronavirus pandemic has resulted in a huge number of Devon patients having to wait more than a year for operations and procedures.
New NHS England data shows 9,856 people had been waiting more than a year for elective hospital treatment – such as hip and knee operations – at hospital trusts in Devon at the end of January.
That figure has jumped from 8,626 at the end of December. It’s also a massive increase from 301 in January 2020, and 288 at the end of March last year.
An apology has been issued to those who have or continue to have long hospital waits, along with a reassurance that the backlog will be tackled as soon as possible.
A spokesperson for the NHS in Devon said: “We know that one of the biggest impacts of the pandemic has been on people whose operations and other procedures have been postponed because of pressure on hospitals and we’re sorry that some people are having to wait longer for treatment.
“Given the falling hospital pressure and the success of the vaccination programme, and with the Government having now published its proposed route out of lockdown, we are looking to catch up on the waiting-list backlog.
“People in the greatest clinical need will have priority, followed by those who have waited the longest. We will provide support and guidance for those who are waiting, to help them through to the point when they go in for their appointment.
“This work will take time, even as the restrictions on our daily lives are lifted. Some people may need to travel further for treatment, so they can be seen sooner and we will continue to use independent hospitals to provide extra capacity where we can.”
Devon figures mean that one in 12 (8.1%) of the 121,377 people on hospital waiting lists in the area has been there for more than a year.
The aim is for 92% of people to wait less than 18 weeks for treatment. At trusts across Devon, the proportion waiting less than 18 weeks averaged 59.9% at the end of January.
Across England, the number of people waiting more than a year for treatment reached 304,044 at the end of January.That was up more than a third in a month from 224,205 in December, and compared to 1,643 in January last year, and 3,097 in March 2020.
More than 100,000 patients seriously ill with the virus needed hospital admission for treatment in January, a third of all those who had been admitted, up to that point, since the start of the pandemic. While routine care was hit this January, the impact was less than in April last year.