It could take up to three years to restore hospital services to pre-Covid levels, say NHS bosses
NHS bosses say it could take up to three years to restore hospital services to their pre-Covid levels.
Hospitals across the region are stepping up non-Covid procedures in a bid to reduce waiting lists that have built up over the past year.
Thousands of procedures have been delayed, although critical cancer care and heart surgery continued.
Prof David Loughton, boss of the Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust, said staff were being redeployed to other areas of care.
He said: “We’ve got to concentrate on restoring services because waiting lists are back to where they were in the early 2000s and people will be suffering because they haven’t had the operation they need.
"You are talking of two maybe three years to get back to previous levels, because NHS waiting lists are now at a very, very high level.”
Diane Wake, CEO of Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust, said she expected Russells Hall to be back to pre-Covid levels in six months.
Michelle Rhodes, Chief Nurse at University Hospitals of North Midlands Trust, said services would be brought back “gradually” when safe.
Prof Loughton said New Cross had seen three cases of people vaccinated developing blood clots.
He said two had received the Pfizer jab and the other AstraZeneca, and there were “no concerns” as the cases were “well within the realms of the normal rate of what you’d expect to see”.
