NHS staff across the South East have now reduced the longest waits for scans, checks, surgical procedures and other routine treatment below 2 years – the first milestone in the most ambitious catch-up plan in health service history.
The NHS Elective Recovery Plan set the target of eliminating 2-year waits by July 2022, except in cases where patients choose to wait longer or require treatment in certain specialities.
Thanks to the hard work of staff across the NHS, including here on the Isle of Wight, the number of people waiting more than 2 years in the South East has fallen to just 60x 104-week waiters from a record national peak in January, of whom 37 opted to defer treatment, 21 are very complex cases, and 2 are waiting at a private sector provider.
This recovery is even more remarkable in light of the ongoing pressures across the health service, particularly in urgent and emergency care. It has also been delivered despite much higher than predicted levels of COVID, with 220,000 patients nationally admitted to hospital since the publication of the Elective Recovery Plan in February.
Anne Eden, South East Regional Director for the NHS, said:
“I want to thank staff for all their hard work in helping to tackle the backlog which built up during the Covid-19 pandemic. Staff in the South East have pulled out all the stops and worked incredibly hard to deliver this milestone.
“It has only been possible because the NHS has continued to reform the way we deliver care, using innovative techniques such as the pressured water technology to remove prostate tissue faster at Basingstoke Hospital and the use of virtual services to reduce waiting times for dermatology patients at Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust.
“The introduction of new treatment pathways, designed to increase the speed with which patients are seen, has involved staff working together in primary care and community services, as well as in our hospitals. This has truly been a team effort across the NHS in the South East.”
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Locally, the Isle of Wight NHS Trust has started to provide a 7-days-a-week service for people on the Island who have been diagnosed with dementia.
The next target in the Elective Recovery Plan is to eliminate 78-week waits by April 2023.
Oh give them a round of applause, another payrise, let us all pray at the alter for the nhs……
They are providing a service, and doing a job we pay them to do.
Time we stopped making Gods out of them, sacked the managers and got things working for US instead,
When was the last time anybody ordinary in the private sector got any recognition for just doing their job?
Stop the attention seeking, its wearing very thin.
Let’s look at these “pay rises”, shall we?
Real terms pay (accounting for inflation) 2020 vs 2010:
Private sector average: +5%
Nurses and health visitors: -5%
Foundation doctors (newly qualified) -5% (+ bigger student loans)
Doctors (average) -7%
Doctors (consultant grade) -11%
Those are what you deem to be “pay rises”? Please explain and include your calculations and how you arrived at your conclusions.
If nursing pay had kept up with inflation, like your triple linked pension, the average band 5 nurse salary would be £35k. Instead it’s £32k. They need a £3k+ rise just to put them back where they were in 2010.
Funny sort of pay rise, that.
Also worth pointing out that when the Tories took over there were 2 million on NHS waiting lists. Today there are 6 million.
“Also worth pointing out that when the Tories took over there were 2 million on NHS waiting lists. Today there are 6 million”.
Also worth pointing out that since the Tories took over there are 5 million more people in the UK of which 2 million have not paid 50 years of NI contributions into the NHS but are receiving full benefits of it.
Also worth pointing out that population growth also occurred on the Tories’ watch and is actually greater (by 1.5 million) than the population growth during the entirety of the last Labour government (4.5 million in 13 years).
Also worth pointing out that Brexit has done little to stem the flow of illegal migrants.
Also worth pointing out that legal migrants pay, on average, more tax and NI than British natives and are more likely to be in employment.
Stop blaming others for your poor voting choices.
Also worth pointing out that there is a generation who obviously have never bought a packet of contraceptives. That has little to do with any ruling government.
Also worth pointing out that Blair under Liebar destroyed the NHS dentistry
Also worth pointing out that Brexit has done little to stem the flow of illegal immigrants mainly because of the insipid bleating from snowflakes.
Also worth pointing out that until a legal immigrant has paid into the system for an extended length of time then the payments received in benefits will outweigh the payment in.
Utter gibberish.
Typical uneducated knuckle-dragger who should have paid more attention in school so that they could recognise Kool-Aid when they see it.
Hahahaha, I was waiting for the end of the argument insults.
Run out of vocabulary have we?
WTF is Kool-aid…..
Do a search for “drinking the Kool-aid”
Describes you perfectly.
You seem to be grossly misinformed about a number of things. Let’s take them one at a time.
First of all, the UK birth rate is currently 11.33 per thousand population. That’s down from a peak of 18.3 in 1963, so it was probably your parents who should have learned about contraception.
The number of NHS dentists per population remained fairly constant until very recently and few had any difficulty finding an NHS dentist until 2019. Nothing to do with Blair, nothing to do with Covid, a lot to do with Brexit.
Brexit has actually made illegal immigration worse as we have lost the cooperation of the French and no longer have access to the Dublin Regulation which allowed us, as an EU member, to return migrants to their point of arrival in the EU.
You clearly do not understand how social welfare systems work. It is those currently in work who pay for current claimants. Your pension is paid for by people working now, not by the money you paid in.
Sorry, but your veiled insult re”Drinking the Kool aid” points to your generational age (if not your mental age) and I have learnt from past (life) experience that you can’t have a reasoned discussion as your type will always get insulting, so you win, no more discussion from me as black will be white and I’ll probably be called a racist for daring to say the word black.
Your mate Smiffy will be along soon (or is that your alter ego)
What good is thanks?
Thanks for working through COVID.
Thanks for reducing waiting times.
Thanks don’t help pay the bills do they?
Seeing as some patients will have died waiting and others like myself have opted to pay for private treatment, I don’t think they deserve a pat on the back at all. Will they waste money on putting up a myriad of posters and balloons again at St Mary’s Hospital?
Considering I had to pay out over £6.000 for an operation as the waiting list was so long, and a very kind relative paid for it . I wish there had been more recognition for the other folk who worked throughout a very difficult time which continues to be difficult, we are still in Covid. A big thank you to all shop workers, mail people,care workers ,bin men all industrial workers resturant cafe workers, teachers and all who work in education, social work .
Exactly.
Still waiting for you to explain how you arrived at the conclusion that that NHS staff had had a pay rise, let alone “another payrise”.
Clap Clap Clap Clap Clap..stunning and brave heroes ..Clap
Brilliant. Thank you to all staff who work within the NHS whatever you do, you are all fantastic.
Not always treated with the respect you deserve by some people. I think you are all magnificent.
In the last 12 years, pay and working conditions for NHS staff have become progressively worse and performance has gone from adequate to complete unacceptable. It doesn’t take a genius work out that if you cut your staff’s pay year-on-year while demanding more and more from them, you will lose them and those that remain will be less enthusiastic.
Ultimately, as a nationalised service, the ultimate responsibility for this disaster lies with the UK government. The buck stops there.
So is is utterly astounding that there are people here blaming the workers at the coal face when the blame lies entirely with their voting choices.