Record number of patients waiting for hospital treatment in Black Country and Staffordshire
A record number of patients had been waiting a year or more for routine treatment at hospital trusts in the Black Country and Staffordshire in February, figures reveal.
The Nuffield Trust said the record size of the NHS waiting list across England shows the health service has been back years by the coronavirus pandemic – and now faces a "major backlog".
NHS rules state that patients referred for non-urgent consultant-led elective care should start treatment within 18 weeks.
But NHS statistics show 4,385 patients listed for elective operations or treatment at the University Hospitals of North Midlands (UHNM) Trust at the end of February had been waiting for at least a year.
While 2,130 patients were waiting at the Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust; and 2,050 patients waiting at the Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust.
And at the Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust there were 687 patients who had been waiting for at least a year, and 460 at the Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust.
All five trusts had reported the highest figure for the month of February since comparable records began in 2012.
The number of people waiting this long across England has risen to 387,900 – the highest total since December 2007, and almost 250 times that of February 2020.
The Nuffield Trust said the strain of the backlog on patients should not be underestimated, but added it is no surprise given the intense pressure of Covid-19 hospitalisations.
Sarah Scobie, deputy director of research at the organisation, said healthcare staff have made huge sacrifices during the pandemic, but more will be asked of them.
Professor Stephen Powis, NHS national medical director, said treating 400,000 patients with Covid-19 has "inevitably" impacted the NHS, but the dedication of staff means they delivered almost a million operations and procedures during the winter wave.
