Nearly 225,000 NHS England patients made to wait more than a year for operations amid pandemic

Almost 225,000 NHS patients in England were waiting more than a year for routine operations in the NHS in December as the coronavirus surge saw hospital admissions fall by 25 per cent.

According to the latest statistics, a total of 224,205 people were waiting longer than a year for their treatments to start at the end of 2020, the highest number in any month since April 2008.

In December 2019, the number having to wait more than 52 weeks to start treatment stood at just 1,467.

In total, almost 4.6 million patients are now waiting for NHS treatment with almost 70 per cent waiting up to 18 weeks. This is the highest number since records began in August 2007.

The data shows approximately 100,000 extra patients joined the total NHS waiting list in December, an increase of 3,300 patients every day.

NHS hospitals were forced to delay operations and cancel appointments as they were forced to open up more beds for sick Covid-19 patients, and many operating theatres were converted into makeshift intensive care units.

The Intensive Care Society has said hospitals had to open 2,250 extra ICU beds – the equivalent of 141 new 16-bed intensive care units.

The total number of people admitted for routine treatment in hospitals in England fell 25 per cent in December compared with a year earlier.

A total of 190,604 patients were admitted, compared with 253,318 in December 2019. Similar falls were seen in November and October.

Christine Stubbs, aged 70, from Staffordshire, has been on a waiting list for a hip replacement since March 2020. Christine has necrosis and was told she was a priority for surgery as her condition could be life threatening. She still hasn’t been given a date.

She said: “Every time I move my leg it’s like someone is sticking a knife in my groin, twisting it. I can feel it getting worse week by week. The pain is terrible when I try to go up or down the stairs, so now I'm stuck in one room. I’m confined completely until this gets sorted.

“I understand the NHS is under a lot of pressure, but I feel exhausted and let down. My life is on hold and it’s making my mental health very bad – I said to my husband last night that I wish I wasn’t here. There must be so many people in my position right now. I feel sorry for all of them. We need help.”

Tracey Loftis, head of policy at the charity Versus Arthritis, said: “Delays to treatment can risk serious physical and mental health implications. It is vital that people waiting for joint replacement surgery receive clear communication about their care, as well as support and advice on pain management and mental health and wellbeing, so they are as well as they can be when surgery does safely resume”.

Tim Mitchell, vice president of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, said: “Covid-19 continues to take an enormous toll on hundreds of thousands of people across the country left waiting for an operation. The number of people waiting over a year for their treatment is now 150 times higher than in 2019. Many are waiting ‘in limbo’, reliant on painkillers, and unable to get on with day-to-day family life or work.”

He said investment was needed to ensure hospitals had the beds and staff to begin reducing the backlog.

NHS England said hospitals carried out more than 6 million elective treatments in 2020, despite the Covid pandemic, with more than two cancer procedures for every patient they treated for the virus.

Stephen Powis, NHS England’s medical director, said: “While the world’s attention has rightly been on Covid, NHS staff have worked extremely hard to provide essential services for those patients who need them, including 280,000 treatments for cancer patients along with millions of routine operations.

“Even in January, when hospitals admitted almost a third of all the Covid patients they have treated during the pandemic, they were treating twice as many patients with other conditions as they did for those with the virus over the month.

“But the NHS remains under significant pressure so it is vital that everyone continues to do all they can to stop the spread of the virus by staying at home and following the expert ‘hands, face, space’ guidance.”