Health bosses in Suffolk and Essex welcome NHS plans for travelling to get treatment
New plans have been revealed to try and manage the huge waiting lists of patients waiting to see medical professionals.
New plans could see patients in Suffolk and Essex travelling outside of the region to get operations and procedures they've been waiting years for.
It's in response to the massive wait list currently being experienced due to the pandemic and aims for people to wait no longer than two years.
We spoke to Nick Hulme, Chief Executive of East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust (ESNEFT) which runs Ipswich and Colchester Hospitals.
He told us why two years is the cut off: "It's an incredibly long time. I think the reason it's two years at the moment is because the numbers are so huge now.
"We went into the pandemic, in our organization of people waiting more than 52 weeks, we had less than 20.
"We're probably likely to have several thousand at the end of this year waiting more than a year.
"So if we made the cut off point a year, it just wouldn't have been manageable.
"So I think what we will do is we'll start at two years and in some time we reduce that."
Nick did mention that it will take a while for the time to go down but that everyone in the NHS is working very hard to try and help as many people as they can.
Nick added: "It's a really tricky kind of logistical problem to manage, as well as understanding that nobody's happy with their waiting lists and our staff working credibly hard to get them down to reduce to the time that people have to wait for treatment.
"And of course, they're clinically prioritized. So people are likely to suffer too much clinically.
"But absolutely understand that that psychologically and the effect on people's lives and their home lives and their work life can be absolutely extraordinary, enormous in terms of those long waits that they're experiencing at the moment."
Those whose medical condition will deteriorate and have an increased risk of death will be higher up on the list.
Those with medical conditions that will deteriorate but will not threaten their life will be further down.
However he said, at any point, if someone's condition worsens, to reach out and get in touch with their GP so they can see what help can be provided.
Another advantage of this protocol is that it encourages hospitals across regions to communicate more.
"I'm really pleased that certainly in this part of the country in Essex and in Suffolk, and in Norfolk and well across the East of England and nationally, we're much clearer about the advantages to patients of working in collaboration.
"Rather than where we were forced to go in previous years, which is in sort of competition.
"So we're collaborating to the best outcome for our patients, with the best access in terms of the shortest waiting times.
"But everybody is suffering from this. Everybody has long lists. So you're unlikely to find somebody with a significantly shorter wait time anytime soon, sadly."
Something Nick was keen to get across is that they want to be as open with the public as possible.
"I think it's really important that we are honest with the public about how long waits are likely to be and that we're very honest about some of the challenges that we face.
"The more of the debate that we can have with the public, with local people to reinforce, so they really understand, sadly, the reality of long wait times, rather than some of the rhetoric we sometimes hear.
"So, anything that encourages that conversation and also encourages patients to maybe think twice, because we still get patients who don't show up."