King's Mill bosses vow to tackle long waiting lists for operations

Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs King’s Mill in Sutton, as well as Mansfield Community and Newark hospitals, cancelled fewer elective operations at the last minute in the three months to December than across the same time period the year before, new figures show.

NHS England suspended collecting data on cancelled operations from April 2020-September 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic, but since restarting, the number of cancelled operations across England has risen by 10 per cent in the last year.

The Royal College of Surgeons of England said no surgeon wants to cancel operations, but high demand and the lack of social care leading to a delay in discharging patients has made this impossible.

NHS England figures show 41 elective operations were cancelled at the last minute in the three months to December at SFH, down from 59 the previous quarter.

It meant a total of 184 operations were cancelled on the day the patient arrived at hospital, after they arrived, or on the day of the operation itself in 2022.

Maggie McManus, trust deputy chief operating officer, said: “We know the impact waiting for treatment can have on patients and their families and are working hard to reduce the length of time people are waiting for non-urgent treatment.

“I would like to thank patients for their understanding while we continue to work hard to reduce waiting lists.

“I’d also like to thank all SFH colleagues and our health and social care partners for their commitment to delivering quality care to our patients as quickly as possible.”

In December 2022, SFH announced plans for a £5.6 million Newark Elective Hub, with an extra 2,600 operations and procedures expected to take place each year as a result of a new state-of-the-art theatre and recovery area and the development of two minor operations suites.

The trust said the project will create extra capacity in non-urgent care for urology and ear, nose and throat surgery, which have the greatest backlogs. In addition, it will also enable clinically-appropriate procedures to be moved out of the theatres into minor operations suites, freeing space for bigger procedures.

Nationally, cancelled operations rose by 9 per cent in the three months to December from the previous quarter and 10 per cent on the same time period in 2021.

The proportion of cancelled operations has remained consistent at about 1 per cent of the total number of operations planned since before the pandemic.

Some 4,590 patients were forced to wait more than 28 days to be treated following their operation being cancelled in the three months to December, up from 4,150 the previous quarter.

Of these, 14 were at SFH, up from 10 the previous quarter.

This was the highest number since data collection was resumed in the final quarter of 2021.

The Department for Health and Social care said bringing down waiting lists and providing the highest quality care is a "top priority", and the rise in cancellations was driven by the increase in booked operations.