‘Staggering’ operation NHSbacklog
Central Scotland MSP Meghan Gallacher claims patients would have been “suffering in pain” after NHS Lanarkshire cancelled thousands of operations.
The Scottish Parliamentarian labelled the number of cancelled operations in the health board area since March 2020 as “absolutely staggering”.
The Scottish Conservative politician was responding to new statistics from Public Health Scotland which reveal that NHS Lanarkshire carried out over 28,000 fewer operations between then and January of this year, compared to the equivalent period between April 2018 and February 2020.
Between April 2018 and February 2020 a total of 48,331 operations went ahead, while the number between March 2020 and January this year was just 20,146.
H o w e v e r, t h e n u m b e r o f scheduled operations each month has been greatly reduced during the latter period and is still not back to pre-pandemic levels.
In January this year there were a total of 1053 scheduled elective operations in the theatre system, but 300 of them (28.5 per cent) were cancelled. Eight per cent (84) were cancelled by the patients themselves.
Of the others, 150 were scheduled elective cancellations in theatre systems, 45 were by the hospitals for clinical reasons, and 20 were due to capacity or non-clinical reasons.
In the corresponding month of 2020 there were a total of 546 operations cancelled, but there were more than double the amount of scheduled elective operations in the theatre system (2365).
Ms Gallacher claims there is a real danger that many NHS Lanarkshire patients are simply being forgotten.
The Tory MSP said: “The sheer number of operations that have been lost over the last two years in NHS Lanarkshire is absolutely staggering. Many of these patients will be suffering in pain and are simply not being given any timescale as to when their operation or procedure will take place.
“Humza Yousaf ’s flimsy NHS Recovery Plan is simply not cutting it in NHS Lanarkshire and these numbers are truly eye-watering.
“Even before the pandemic, the SNP had failed to get to grip with staffing shortages in NHS Lanarkshire and now that is having a devastating impact on patients. Our NHS is in crisis and Humza Yousaf needs to get a grip on this backlog.”
A Scottish Government spokesperson said:“We are working with NHS Boards, including Lanarkshire, to get those who have had treatments or procedures postponed due to COVID-19 the care they need as quickly as possible.
“Throughout the pandemic NHS Boards have ensured that urgent, maternity and vital cancer services continue as usual and have worked hard to ensure vital cancer care remains in place where clinically agreed. In January, during the peak of the Omicron wave, our NHS still managed to perform 14,616 operations – an average of 470 a day.”