Funding will help NHS ease waiting lists

VIRTUAL wards, as well as 3D eye scanners and at-home antibiotic kits, are among the new initiatives to be given trials in parts of the Westcountry in a multi-million pound effort to tackle lengthy waiting lists in the NHS.

Funding of £160 million has been announced by NHS England to aid the health service’s recovery after the pandemic. Among the areas which will be testing some of the initiatives are Devon, Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire.

Figures last month revealed the number of people in England waiting to begin hospital treatment had risen to a new record. A total of 4.7 million people were waiting to start treatment at the end of February – the highest figure since records began in August, 2007.

It comes as research from the Institute for Fiscal Studies, Harvard University and Imperial College London showed there were 2.9 million fewer planned admissions, 1.2 million fewer non-Covid-related emergency inpatient admissions and 17.1 million fewer outpatient appointments between March and December 2020, compared with the same period in 2019.

NHS England said indicators suggest operations and other elective activity were at four-fifths of pre-pandemic levels in April, which is “well ahead” of the 70% threshold set out in official guidance.

NHS England said it is working to speed up the health service’s recovery by giving trials to new ways of working in 12 areas and five specialist children’s hospitals.

The so-called ‘elective accelerators’ will each get some of the £160 million as well as extra support for new ways to increase the number of elective operations, NHS England said. Tens of thousands of patients in the trial areas will be part of initiatives including a high-volume cataract service, onestop testing facilities and pop-up clinics to allow patients to be seen and discharged closer to home.

Other trials over the next three months include virtual wards and home assessments, 3D eye scanners, at-home antibiotic kits, ‘pre-hab’ for patients ahead of surgery, artificial intelligence in GP surgeries and socalled ‘Super Saturday’ clinics, bringing multi-disciplinary teams together at the weekend to offer more specialist appointments.

Amanda Pritchard, NHS chief operating officer, said: “With Covid cases in hospitals now significantly reducing thanks to the extraordinary success of the NHS vaccination programme, our focus is now on rapidly recovering routine services.

“Early figures show local teams are already well ahead of schedule, but we want to go further, faster, which is why we are investing £160 million to find new ways to tackle waiting lists.”