The number of people facing a year-long wait for surgery at the Isle of Wight NHS Trust is coming down, but a health boss has warned progress could soon plateau and waiting lists growing again.
As a result of the Covid pandemic, waiting lists for elected surgery spiked at the start of the year, with more than 1,000 people waiting for procedures.
Impact of Covid
Between May 2020 and February 2021 the 52-week waiting list rocketed by 1,839 per cent — from 56 people in May to 1,086 nine months later.
Elective treatments were halted nationally to stop the spread of Covid infections and to focus resources elsewhere but significant backlogs built up and trusts are only just starting to make a dent in the lists.
Waiting list reducing
At the Isle of Wight NHS Trust, after hitting a high in March of 1,128, the number of patients waiting has been coming down, month on month, with latest figures showing 184 people were treated in April taking it down to 944 with the number falling further to around 750 in May.
Chief operating officer at the trust, Joe Smyth, said good progress has been made on the recovery of waiting lists which will help people receive treatment quicker.
Progress will ‘plateau’
Despite the ‘huge gains’ in May, however, Mr Smyth cautioned the trust board that while the lists had gone down very quickly to begin with, the progress would ‘plateau’.
He said,
“The total incompletes [number of people on the waiting list] is actually going up as people start to bounce back in.
“Of course we are getting the long waits down but that doesn’t mean we are winning the battle with the overall number, so that remains a caution.”
Threat of a third wave of infections
Maggie Oldham, trust chief executive, said waiting lists were not just numbers,
“They are people who have been waiting a long time for treatment and we must do all we can to ensure they are treated as quickly as possible.”
She went on to say,
“The emergence of new variants of Covid-19 and the threat of a third wave of infections on the Isle of Wight presents a risk to the future delivery of this work.”
Smyth: ‘Damned if you do and damned if you don’t’
When questioned whether people were prioritised on the waiting lists due to health inequalities on the Island, a practice used by other trusts in the country, Mr Smyth said it could be a situation where you are ‘damned if you do and damned if you don’t’.
He said,
“I would be concerned about taking people out of date order because we have so many cases.
“Last week, I spoke to an 86-year-old gentleman who is waiting for a hernia operation. He is not urgent by any means, but when I spoke to him about the potential he would be waiting 18 months for a procedure that for him is a considerable length of time to be waiting.”
This article is from the BBC’s LDRS (Local Democracy Reporter Service) scheme, which News OnTheWight is part of. Read here to find about more about how that scheme works on the Island. Some alterations and additions may have been made by News OnTheWight. Ed
Image: Harsha K R under CC BY 2.0
