Long waits for gynecology treatment at Hull hospitals
There's been an increase with how long patients there have to wait
There are concerns about the length of time patients are waiting at Hull hospitals for gynecology treatment.
Over 6 and a half thousand people waited an average of more than four and a half months the only treatment area where the trust was over the NHS target.
The total for all procedures hit 68,450.
A spokesperson for Hull University Teaching Hospitals Trust (HUTH) said that while the total had risen, significant progress had been made for those patients waiting the longest.
Gynecology treatments was the only area longer than the NHS target time.
NHS England data showed the overall number of patients waiting for treatment with HUTH, which runs Hull Royal Infirmary and Castle Hill Hospital, rose from 68,016 in April.
But figures also showed there was now no one waiting for two years or longer.
The amount waiting for a year and a half has fallen from about 3,500 in October 2021 to 26 according to the latest count.
The average total wait for planned treatments was 12.8 weeks, or almost three months, compared to the NHS’s 18-week target time.
Gynecology treatments, with an average wait of 20.1 weeks in May, was the only one longer than the NHS target time.
It was followed by plastic surgery with 2,799 people waiting 16.1 weeks on average, with 2,894 oral surgery patients facing the third-longest average waits of 15.8 weeks.
The impact of coronavirus is still be felt
A total of 1,755 patients waited 15.6 weeks on average for rheumatology treatment, procedures dealing with chronic joint, muscle and bone inflammation like arthritis and gout.
The Trust’s neurology service which deals with brain and nerve conditions had 3,683 patients waiting 15.1 weeks, or almost three and a half months, for treatment.
The treatment department with the shortest waits was the general internal medical service with 219 patients waiting an average of 4.6 weeks.
Paediatric services for children had 1,240 patients waiting an average of 6.9 weeks, or more than one and half months.
A total of 3,721 people had waited for an average of 8.6 weeks for other medical services while 2,220 waited for 9.7 weeks on average for other services.
There was an average wait of 10.5 weeks, or almost two and a half months, for brain surgery.
Slight increase in patients waiting overall
The Trust’s spokesperson said they were continuing efforts to end waits of a year or more by 2025 following the delays and cancellations caused by coronavirus.
The spokesperson said: “While we acknowledge that there are still some patients waiting longer than we would like, the Trust has seen long waits improve significantly.
“Figures also show that the number of people waiting more than a year for surgery in our hospitals has also come down from April to May, and we are seeing more patients inside the 18-week target for planned care.
“This continuing improvement is the result of a great deal of hard work by our clinical and management teams and through careful and planned prioritisation of the most urgent cases, along with the creation of additional capacity.
“The slight increase in the number of patients waiting overall as well as the average waiting time is likely to be due to those cases we have needed to reschedule as a result of junior doctor industrial action.”
Meanwhile, average annual response times for ambulances rose from May to June.