Shorter treatment waits at King’s Mill Hospital – but hospital bosses sorry for those waiting longer than expected

The Nuffield Trust think tank said thousands of patients on the waiting list across England are suffering in pain, while NHS staff are still dealing with burnout from the last two years.

NHS England figures show the median waiting time for non-urgent elective operations or treatment at Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs Sutton’s King’s Mill and Mansfield hospitals, was 10 weeks at the end of January – the same wait as in December and down from 13 weeks a year previously.

There were 38,990 patients on the waiting list in January, up from 38,616 in December, and 36,666 in January 2021. Of those, nine had been waiting for longer than two years.

Simon Barton, trust chief operating officer, said: “The trust is back at its pre-pandemic activity levels for planned care and this has seen longer waiting times fall significantly over recent months.

“That said, we know there is a very small number of patients who have been waiting more than two years and we would like to apologise to patients who are currently waiting longer than we would like.

“I would like to reassure patients who are waiting we have not forgotten them and are doing all we can to see them.”

Nationally, 6.1 million people were waiting to start treatment at the end of January.

Health Secretary Sajid Javid recently announced NHS reforms, which include paying for patients who have been waiting the longest to travel to less busy hospitals or private facilities for care.

But Siva Anandaciva, chief analyst at the King’s Fund health think tank, said these promises will ‘ring hollow if hospitals throughout England continue to flash red’.

He said: "Staff shortages remain the rate-limiting factor in the Government’s ambition to reduce the backlog.

“£Without a fully-funded workforce plan, key targets will continue to be missed and people will continue wait longer for the care they need.”

Tests

Separate figures show 1.5 million patients in England were waiting for a key diagnostic test in January – a rise on 1.4 million in December.

At SFH, 11,340 patients were waiting for one of 15 standard tests, such as an MRI scan, non-obstetric ultrasound or gastroscopy at this time.

Of them, 3,753, 33 per cent,had been waiting for at least six weeks.

The Nuffield Trust said the latest national figures on the state of the NHS make for "sobering reading", particularly amid a rise in hospital admissions for Covid-19.

Other figures from NHS England show that of 93 patients urgently referred at SFH in January, 49 received cancer treatment within two months.

A month previously – when 101 patients were referred – 68 were treated within 62 days.

In January 2021, 47 patients were treated within this period, out of 74 that were referred.

A Department of Health and Social Care spokeswoman said: “We will deliver new surgical hubs and at least 100 community diagnostic centres to help patients get the surgery they need and earlier access to tests – including for cancer – delivering an extra nine million scans, checks and procedures by 2025.”

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