Hospital trust aiming to eliminate 18-month and 2-year waits for planned procedures by mid-July
Hospital bosses are hoping to cut the list of patients waiting longer than 18 months for planned treatment to zero by mid-July – but the number currently stands at more than 400.
An independent review of waiting list management has been carried out at University Hospitals of North Midlands (UHNM) NHS Trust, following an increase in the number of patients facing a wait of at least 78 weeks (18 months) for procedures.
The trust, which runs Royal Stoke and Stafford’s County Hospital, has failed to meet a national NHS target to eliminate waits of more than 18 months by April.
A report to Wednesday’s trust board meeting said: “The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic has caused national backlogs across patients waiting for treatment and has placed significant strain on planned care delivery.
“Nationally, the latest figures show a total of 20,101 patients were waiting over 18 months for elective treatment as of March 19, 2023, down from 123,969 in September 2021.
"In UHNM, as at May 11, there are 46 patients that had waited 104 weeks or more, and 539 patients that were waiting between 78 and 103 weeks.”
Katy Thorpe, the trust’s deputy chief operating officer, said that by the end of last month there were 50-54 patients who had waited at least 104 weeks for planned treatment and the number waiting between 78 and 103 weeks had reduced to 420.
But she added: “We’re currently a long way off the zero patients required of us by NHSE (NHS England).
“We are in-sourcing additional staffing, with locums coming in. Nuffield are offering us significant support for orthopaedics and we are working with them to get suitable patients in, and using County Hospital for elective work.
“There is significant work going on in the background. Our trajectory is to (get to) zero by mid-July but there is a risk in all of these actions being done.”
Chief executive Tracy Bullock said: “I think the assurance is theoretically we can get to zero, but there are some very high risk assumptions that everything goes to plan.
"However various things happen, such as patients get Covid and (procedures) can’t be done.
“We have weekly meetings with NHSE regionally and there is intense scrutiny of the number of patients waiting. NHSE have been able to offer support through mutual aid.
“We know these patients by name and we know the reasons why they have been waiting and for how long.
"Some of it is around capacity, some is around patients having Covid or not wanting (an appointment on a specific date) because of going on holiday or exams.
“The things found (in the review) are no different to what you would find in any other trust. Some of the actions will be quick and some will be 18 months down the line.”
The review found no evidence of “deliberate irregularities in the management of waiting times” at UHNM.
But it added: “As the case for most NHS Trusts, the capacity to misrepresent the ‘true’ volume of waiters at a certain point in time is significant.
“Managing this risk by minimising the capacity for errors through training, the right pathway administration systems and tools, and the ability to monitor data quality through a defined set of process assurance measures is key.
"Whilst UHNM possesses these components, they are not necessarily working in cohesion to provide the assurance and oversight needed to manage patient waiting times.
“It is recommended that the programme of work is taken forward and co-ordinated by the Programme Management Office over a 12 to 18 month period.
"However, there are some immediate priorities that need to be addressed including mass validation of all patients in Careflow (including legacy patients) with a clinical harm review performed in parallel, mass training of workforce (and) rationalisation of waiting time reports to ensure relevancy, increase literacy around use of reports and align to operational validation schedules.”
