At the beginning in the Coronavirus (Covid-19) outbreak in the UK, hospital Trusts up and down the country were forced to cancel elective procedures (operations) to free up beds for potential Covid-19 patients.
Here on the Isle of Wight 407 planned procedures have been postponed since the start of the pandemic – this does not mean the same number of people were affected, as some patients will have needed more than one procedure.
Not the full picture
However, this does figure alone not give the full picture of the impact on Islanders awaiting surgery.
Not included in that number are patients who have been referred for surgery by their GP, but are yet to be processed by the hospital. Nor those patients that were referred for procedures on the mainland that have been cancelled.
Growing waiting list
The full scale of how the waiting lists are expected to play out over the next couple of months across the country is unknown.
Here on the Island we can probably expect a similar pattern to the winter of 2016/17, when the NHS Trust was forced to postpone elective surgery in order to prepare for the increased demand.
Clinical judgements for prioritising
Elective procedures have now started to take place again at St Mary’s Hospital, with clinical judgements being made on how patients are prioritised.
With social distancing and infection control measures in place in operating theatres and on wards, the procedures are understandably taking a lot longer to complete, meaning the backlog will potentially take longer to clear than under normal circumstances.
A spokesperson for Isle of Wight NHS Trust told News OnTheWight,
“We had to change how we work at the start of the pandemic to keep our patients, staff and the wider community safe. This included postponing non-urgent surgery to make sure that we had the beds and ventilators available in case there was a significant increase in the number of people requiring hospital treatment for Covid-19. Urgent and cancer surgery continued throughout.
“Thanks to the hard work of health and social care staff, key workers across the Island and the public’s support the number of cases on the Isle of Wight remains relatively low compared to much of the rest of the country.
“We are restarting many of our services and will do everything we can to ensure that people are treated as promptly as possible, including anyone who has had a procedure postponed because of Covid-19.”
