Thousands receive care after long waits
Hundreds of patients who were waiting too long for routine treatment have now had their operations this year.
In the last six months our hospitals treated almost 18,000 people who would otherwise have waited more than 65 weeks for a planned appointment.
Although some complex and challenging cases still remain on the books, we are on track to clear the remaining backlog of about 590 patients over the next few weeks.
This is on top of dealing with an estimated 3,000 new patients who will reach the 65-week threshold between now and the end of November.
The concerted effort by multidisciplinary teams will mean that no-one waits this long in future unless they choose to delay their own treatment.
Teams are pulling out all the stops to bring the numbers of long-waiters down to zero. This includes doing Super Saturday sessions and Sunday clinics and theatres.
Clinicians are also double-checking that patients still need the procedure they were originally put down for on the waiting list.
Hospitals are taking advantage of our group model to maximise surgical capacity by moving patients across the group so they can receive care more quickly.
For example, Whipps Cross has taken paediatric dermatology and urology patients from The Royal London, and is supporting both it and Newham to do ear, nose and throat (ENT) procedures.
Newham is also taking some vascular and general surgery patients from The Royal London. These steps relieve pressure on the hospital, which has the biggest cohort of patients still waiting, and enables its surgeons to focus on the most complex cases. They are also being helped by teams from University College London Hospitals coming in to do some theatre sessions.
In addition, Newham has recruited several additional gynaecology consultants and is doing day cases on Saturdays and “blitz clinics” in outpatients at weekends.
Some patients are being treated by the independent sector at NHS rates. For example, some gynaecology patients at Whipps Cross have agreed to treatment at Spire East while some ENT patients are treated at Holly House.
Rebecca Carlton, group chief operating officer, said: “I pay tribute to the heroic efforts of our medical and clerical teams for their contribution to the national NHS drive to eliminate long waiting lists.
“It’s hard work and progress is often slower than we would like, as demand for urgent and emergency care can blow us off course. However we owe it to our patients to continually seek new ways of improving their access to routine treatment.”