The NHS England is willing to “virtually eliminate” the list of those who have waited more than two years to receive treatment, its chief executive said, as patients have the option of being treated more quickly in different hospitals. parts of the country.
The number of people who have waited two years or more to receive treatment has fallen from a high of 22,500 in January to 6,700, after the Covid-19 pandemic caused waiting lists to rise.
Patients who remain on the waiting list are asked if they are prepared to travel for treatment. More than 400 have accepted, with 140 reserved for surgery at a different hospital.
NHS England Executive Director Amanda Pritchard said: “As part of the largest and most ambitious recovery program in NHS history, staff are now on track to virtually eliminate two-year-old waiters by the end of July. .
“But the NHS won’t stop there, from testing and checking 1 million through our newly established community diagnostic centers to new state-of-the-art hip replacements on the same day, staff are constantly looking for ways new and innovative ways to treat patients faster, especially those who have been waiting for it for a long time. “
The NHS has said it will cover patients ’travel and accommodation costs“ where appropriate ”.
Three patients who were waiting to receive treatment at Derby University Hospitals and the Burton NHS Foundation received treatment at the Northumbria Healthcare Foundation more than 100 miles away, with two more reserved.
Meanwhile, the South West London Elective Orthopedic Center has treated 17 patients in the south-west of England and 11 more are expected to receive treatment in the coming weeks.
Patients who choose to wait longer or patients in highly specialized areas who may require a tailor-made plan, however, will not necessarily have been treated by the end of July, the NHS warns.
The drop in waiting lists comes after the busiest May for emergency care, with 2.2 million visits to the A&E and nearly 78,000 of the most urgent ambulance calls.
Pritchard added: “One of the advantages of the NHS is that hospitals can work together to reduce Covid delays, and therefore if people can and want to be treated more quickly elsewhere in the country, ‘NHS makes sure it can happen.
“Once again, NHS staff are demonstrating the agility, resilience and compassion they show when they are offered the tools and resources they need, they offer our patients.”
Health Secretary Sajid Javid said: “The NHS is making great strides in ensuring that those who wait longer have access to vital treatment as part of our plan to eliminate Covid delays by reducing waits by two. years by two-thirds since January.
“I announced a new right to choose for patients earlier this year and some of the longer waiters are already benefiting from the offer of an alternative provider where they can be seen more quickly.
“Innovations like this are helping to meet waiting lists and speed up access to treatment, with the support of a record investment, and there are more than 90 community diagnostic centers offering more than 1 million controls and scans over the last year “.
Saffron Cordery, the interim executive director of NHS providers, said the health service is “approaching the goal” of eliminating the backlog of all people who have been waiting for hospital care for more than two years.
He told the BBC Breakfast: “The NHS is doing incredibly well and we are seeing these figures go down significantly week by week. I never like to say, ‘Yes, it will definitely happen,’ but I think it’s a testament to the hard work of the trusted leaders across the country we are approaching. “
Asked about the call for more nurses, she said: “We have known for a long time that the workforce is a major challenge. I think one of the things we need to remember is that the challenges we face now, then of the pandemic, there were before the pandemic and the pandemic has simply aggravated them.
“So we have funding challenges that have come from a decade of funding tightening; demand was already rising before the pandemic; we had challenges in terms of the social care we have now and they are increasing significantly.
“But we also have this labor shortage, which is incredibly serious.
“We have asked the government to establish a fully funded and cost-effective long-term labor plan to be able to solve it once and for all, but we know that there are great challenges among the labor force.” nursing, the workforce of doctors and other parts of the NHS staff structure. “