Salisbury District Hospital's medical test waiting times fall
Fewer patients are waiting more than three months for them
Less people at Salisbury District Hospital were waiting for medical tests at the end of April, figures show.
NHS trusts report waiting times for 15 key tests at the end of each month, which are used to diagnose a wide range of diseases and conditions.
Data by them shows 16 people had been waiting at least 13 weeks at Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust at the end of April.
This was a drop from the 23 patients who had been waiting this long in March, and it was 9 fewer than the 25 patients who had experienced such delays at the same time last year.
Rules by the National Health Service state, after someone is referred for one of these tests, they should have it completed within six weeks.
Across England, 136,200 patients had been waiting 13 weeks or more for tests at the end of April - more than four times the 31,200 a year earlier.
SOME ARE WAITING SIX WEEKS OR MORE
The figures also show that 210 of Salisbury Trust patients had been waiting six weeks or more for medical tests at the end of April - fewer than 265 in March, and down from 1,568 in April 2020.
Overall, a total of 3,628 patients were waiting for key diagnostic tests at the end of April.
NHS England said operations and other routine care were ahead of ambitions nationally.
A spokesman said waiting times for diagnostic tests also fell to a median average of 2.7 weeks in April - down from a peak of 8.6 in May last year.
Health think tank the Nuffield Trust said NHS staff are continuing to work under pressure to make a dent in the "troubling backlog" of tests nationally.
Sarah Scobie, the trust's deputy director of research, said urgent non-coronavirus demand is growing rapidly amid the easing of restrictions in England, but added hospitals could see another rise in Covid admissions as new infections surge.
She added: "Rising cases and early signs of more hospitalisations in Delta variant hotspots are a real concern.
"If Covid-19 demand rises alongside growing non-coronavirus need, the NHS will be forced again to do more with less given the reduction in bed numbers due to social distancing and ongoing staff exhaustion and shortages."