{"id":121298,"date":"2021-04-15T11:34:17","date_gmt":"2021-04-15T11:34:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/?p=121298"},"modified":"2021-04-15T11:34:17","modified_gmt":"2021-04-15T11:34:17","slug":"4-7million-patients-waiting-for-routine-treatment-figures-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/world-news\/4-7million-patients-waiting-for-routine-treatment-figures-show\/","title":{"rendered":"4.7million patients waiting for routine treatment, figures show"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>NHS waiting list hits ANOTHER record-high amid Covid pandemic with 4.7million patients now waiting for routine treatment, official figures show<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>387,885 people have now waited more than a year for hospital treatment\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>30.3% of people diagnosed with cancer are waiting more than two months<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Medical professionals have lamented the &#8216;brutal&#8217; effect of the pandemic\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>More than 4.7million people in England are now waiting for routine hospital treatment amid the Covid pandemic, the highest number since records began.<\/p>\n<p>NHS data showed today that of those patients,\u00a0nearly 400,000 have been waiting for more than a year \u2014\u00a0the most since December 2007.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The proportion of people who hadn&#8217;t received cancer treatment two months after their diagnosis also jumped to a record 30.3 per cent in February this year.<\/p>\n<p>Medical professionals have lamented the &#8216;brutal&#8217; effect of the pandemic on other illnesses after hospitals were forced to turf out patients during the first and third national lockdowns.<\/p>\n<p>But they also warned the NHS&#8217;s capacity problem predates the pandemic, claiming that too few beds and staff to handle large flu breakouts in previous years.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Cancer charities described Covid as being &#8216;catastrophic&#8217; for treatment of the disease. And MPs are calling for an NHS rescue plan to bring down waiting lists as the country emerges from the winter peak of the coronavirus crisis.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Figures from NHS England show that 387,885 people are now waiting more than a year for treatment. This is the highest on record and up 83,841 on the number in January.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Hospital admissions for Covid were at their highest in on January 12 at 4,557 a day, leaving NHS staff unable to handle the sheer number of patients with other\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Labour&#8217;s Shadow Health Secretary\u00a0Jonathan Ashworth: &#8216;Ten years of Tory underfunding, cuts and chronic staff shortages left the NHS exposed when the pandemic hit.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2021\/04\/15\/10\/41787144-9473981-image-a-8_1618478342287.jpg\" height=\"424\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>A record 4.7million people are now waiting for routine hospital treatment, official data showed today as the NHS scrambles to catch up with a Covid backlog<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Patients are now left paying the price with waiting lists at record highs. It&#8217;s a shocking indictment of 10 years of Conservative government risking significant long term illness and permanent disability for thousands of people.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Labour is calling for an NHS rescue plan to bring down waiting lists and ensure patients can receive the quality care they deserve.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>It has now been five years since the NHS met the Government&#8217;s target of ensuring all patients receive planned treatment\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Mr Tim Mitchell, vice president of the Royal College of Surgeons of England added:\u00a0&#8216;The NHS had a brutal start to the year because of the second wave of Covid-19, and this is reflected in today&#8217;s figures.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Less than 70 per cent of people were given there first cancer treatment within two months of an urgent referral \u2014 a record low.<\/p>\n<p>NHS England data today showed just 69.7 per cent of patients met that target in February this year.<\/p>\n<p>There was an eight per cent drop in the number of people in England who were seen by a specialist for suspected cancer following an urgent referral by their GP compared with the same time last year.<\/p>\n<p>The number of people seeing a specialist for suspected cancer in the first full year of the pandemic is now more than 370,000 lower than in the previous year \u2014 a 15 per cent fall.<\/p>\n<p>And there was a six per cent drop in the number of people starting cancer treatment compared with this time last year, with no improvement over 2021.<\/p>\n<p>The total number of people starting treatment between March 2020 and February 2021 is now at least 38,500 lower than expected.<\/p>\n<p>Sara Bainbridge, head of policy at Macmillan Cancer Support, said: &#8216;Today&#8217;s data further illustrates the catastrophic impact of Covid-19 on cancer diagnosis and treatment.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Whilst there has been a marginal improvement from January in terms of urgent referrals, the number of people starting treatment remains lower than we&#8217;d expect.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Tens of thousands of people are still missing a diagnosis due to disruption caused by the pandemic, which could affect their prognosis.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;It&#8217;s vital that cancer services continue to be prioritised and that those with cancer are not forgotten.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;To address the extensive challenges that lie ahead, the NHS urgently needs a long-term, fully-funded plan for its workforce, ensuring there are more dedicated staff are able to provide the best care for cancer patients, now and in the future.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Although we did see the number of patients with Covid-19 decline in February, hospitals were still under huge pressure due to having to separate Covid and non-Covid care, staff having to isolate or being ill with the virus, and the massive resource needed to support the essential national vaccination effort.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Although the most urgent operations, for cancer and life-threatening conditions, went ahead, hundreds of thousands of patients waiting for routine surgery such as hip and knee operations, cochlear implants and vascular operations had their treatment cancelled or postponed.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;387,885 patients have now been waiting over a year for planned treatment. That is a year of uncertainty, pain, and isolation.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;People have been patient as they&#8217;ve seen the battering the pandemic has given the NHS, but how much longer can they be expected to wait?<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Hitting the inauspicious milestone of a half a decade since the Government&#8217;s 18-week target for planned treatment was last met, reminds us the NHS&#8217; capacity problem predates the pandemic.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;We already had too few beds and not enough staff to keep wider services, such as planned operations, going through hard winters and flu outbreaks.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;The symptoms were there even before the pandemic, but the problem has now become &#8216;chronic&#8217; and needs &#8216;long-term treatment&#8217;.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;As we try to get the NHS back on its feet, we must consider how to future-proof our health service, so that vital and life-changing operations can continue, no matter what comes our way.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;We need a New Deal for Surgery, with investment on a scale last seen in the 2000s, to get back on track meeting NHS waiting time standards.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>The total number of people admitted for routine treatment in hospitals in England was down 47 per cent in February 2021 compared with a year earlier.<\/p>\n<p>Some 152,642 patients were admitted for treatment during the month, compared with 285,918 in February 2020.<\/p>\n<p>Because 2020 was a leap year, February contained 29 days rather than the usual 28 days.<\/p>\n<p>The year-on-year decrease recorded in January was 54 per cent, while in December 2020 the drop was 25 per cent.<\/p>\n<p>Dr Susan Crossland, president of the Society for Acute Medicine, said: &#8216;This data shows pressure is high and growing despite the fall in Covid cases and this was prior to the country starting to come out of lockdown.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Just this week the workload in acute medical units has felt to many like the pre-pandemic &#8216;eternal winters&#8217; we had been working through for too long.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;The scale of pressure on the system is illustrated by the fact the number waiting more that 12 hours in an ED last month has doubled compared to March in 2019 pre-pandemic despite overall attendances and admissions being vastly reduced.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;For frontline staff this is a major stress after 14 months of Covid work preceded by years of escalating pressure and there is a concern hospital trusts will take their eye off the ball&#8217; as national directives push for a rapid ramping up of non-urgent care.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>Figures also show that 174,624 urgent cancer referrals were made by GPs in February, compared with 190,369 a year before \u2013 a year-on-year drop of eight per cent.<\/p>\n<p>This follows a year-on-year fall of 11 per cent in January but an increase of seven per cent in December 2020.<\/p>\n<p>Urgent referrals where breast cancer symptoms were present \u2013 though not initially suspected \u2013 were down from 13,627 in February 2020 to 12,199 in February 2021, a fall of 10 per cent.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The number of people seeing a specialist for suspected cancer in the first full year of the pandemic is now more than 370,000 lower than in the previous year \u2014 a 15 per cent fall.<\/p>\n<p>And there was a six per cent drop in the number of people starting cancer treatment compared with this time last year, with no improvement over 2021.<\/p>\n<p>The total number of people starting treatment between March 2020 and February 2021 is now at least 38,500 lower than expected.<\/p>\n<p>Sara Bainbridge, head of policy at Macmillan Cancer Support, said: &#8216;Today&#8217;s data further illustrates the catastrophic impact of Covid-19 on cancer diagnosis and treatment.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Whilst there has been a marginal improvement from January in terms of urgent referrals, the number of people starting treatment remains lower than we&#8217;d expect.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Tens of thousands of people are still missing a diagnosis due to disruption caused by the pandemic, which could affect their prognosis.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;It&#8217;s vital that cancer services continue to be prioritised and that those with cancer are not forgotten.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;To address the extensive challenges that lie ahead, the NHS urgently needs a long-term, fully-funded plan for its workforce, ensuring there are more dedicated staff are able to provide the best care for cancer patients, now and in the future.&#8217;\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>NHS England said staff completed almost 2million operations and other elective care in January and February this year, while also providing hospital treatment for nearly 140,000 coronavirus patients.<\/p>\n<p>It said around two in five of all patients who have received hospital treatment for Covid-19 were admitted in the first two months of the year.<\/p>\n<p>Data shows 1.9million elective procedures or support for patients took place amid the winter surge of Covid-19 infections and there were some 2.6million A&amp;E visits in that period, NHS England said.<\/p>\n<p>But Dr Nick Scriven, immediate past president of the Society for Acute Medicine, said: &#8216;It is becoming clearer that people with chronic illness, such as heart failure, have struggled on throughout the pandemic with community care but have now reached the limit of their endurance and now need hospital inpatient care.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Therefore it is imperative to rebuild face-to-face teams in the community as a matter of urgency as these are invaluable for patients with chronic diseases.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;We must put emphasis on the safe &#8220;flow&#8221; of patients through hospitals to effective discharge home to enable front door acute and emergency teams to do their jobs with manageable pressure on staff.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;While no-one wants to see waiting lists increase any further, the priority will always be to ensure the most sick and in need get their care promptly and safely.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;The job of government and NHS leaders is to make sure systems are in place across the board so that all patients are seen at the right place, by the right person at the right time to really effect change and we are not there yet.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/article-9473981\/Covid-19-UK-NHS-waiting-list-hits-record-high-amid-pandemic-official-figures-show.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>NHS waiting list hits ANOTHER record-high amid<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":121297,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23056],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>4.7million patients waiting for routine 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