Waiting list 'backlog' at Sheffield hospitals increased by 2,000 in a month

Staff at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust are faced with a ‘stomach churning’ backlog of patients awaiting routine treatment in the city, an industry body has claimed.
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NHS statistics show 49,957 patients were listed as waiting for elective operations or treatment at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust at the end of March 2021, up from 47,802 at the end of February.

It was also up from 44,549 the year before.

The pressure put on the NHS by the Covid-19 pandemic, and the resources used up by patients hospitalised with the virus, meant that a large number of other treatments and surgeries had to be delayed all over the country.

Northern General Hospital.Picture by Simon HulmeNorthern General Hospital.Picture by Simon Hulme
Northern General Hospital.Picture by Simon Hulme
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Dr Jennifer Hill medical director (operations) at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said: “We have tried to keep as much care going through the pandemic as was safe to do so but we are acutely aware that due to the risks of the virus some of our patients have had to wait longer to have their procedure than we would normally expect.

"We have seen an increase in the number of people joining the waiting list in the last few months because more people are also now coming forward and being referred for appointments or procedures which we think reflects the fact that people were more resistant to seek care when the virus levels were higher.

"We will continue to do everything we can to see people as quickly as possible and we have been clinically reviewing those patients who are on the waiting list and responding if their clinical condition changes to ensure those who need the most urgent care get it first.”

The Royal College of Surgeons has described the size of the country's waiting list as ‘stomach-churning’, adding it will take many years to deal with the backlog.

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The RCS said that the task ahead for NHS workers was vast following an ‘unimaginably difficult year’.

Vice president Tim Mitchell said: “With the number of Covid-19 patients in hospital at the lowest it has been since September last year, the recovery of planned surgery is fortunately now well underway.

"Still, any prospect of chiselling down the waiting list, which is now five million people, is premature, because new patients are presenting daily.

"The task ahead is vast and many of the staff that support surgeons to operate, anaesthetists and nurses, are running on fumes after an unimaginably difficult year helping out on Covid-19 wards.”

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Dr Hill added: "Our teams have been working exceptionally hard to catch up the care that was paused and indeed all our services are back up and running, albeit we have had to ensure we still have all the social distancing and other Covid-19 measures in place.”

NHS rules state that patients referred for non-urgent treatments under the care of a consultant should start treatment within 18 weeks.

The percentage of Sheffield patients who have been waiting less than 18 weeks for their treatment at the end of the March was 81 per cent. The national performance for March was 64.4 per cent.

But the figures also show 1,096 patients on waiting lists at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals Trust at the end of March had been waiting for at least a year – two per cent of all those on the waiting list.