Five years until hospital waiting lists in York recover from Covid
That's according to health bosses in the city.
There's a warning that it could it take five years before hospital waiting lists in York recover from the impact of the Covid pandemic.
Hospital staff in the city are set to start ringing patients waiting for operations to make sure they are fit for surgery when it is offered - to try to cut waiting times.
A report to York’s health and wellbeing board, which meets on Wednesday, says that this work will be taken on by the city’s Covid support hub.
The hub was set up in the first wave of the pandemic to offer welfare calls to those that were moderately unwell with Covid and at risk of rapid decline.
There were more than 1,500 patients waiting more than a year for their first treatment at York and Scarborough NHS Foundation Trust in December last year.
The report says: “Long waiting lists are creating an unmet health need in York and it could be up to five years before the lists recover from the impact of Covid.
“Those receiving the calls will all be on P4 waiting lists longer than three months and therefore, likely to face the longest waits.”
Staff will assess who to ring based on social and health factors to make sure the most vulnerable patients are contacted first, the report adds.
York is the first place in the Humber, Coast and Vale – the area covered by the new integrated care system – to try to tackle the long waiting lists in this way.
Board papers from the Vale of York Clinical Commissioning Group show that in December 2021 there were 1,586 patients waiting more than a year for their first treatment at York and Scarborough NHS Foundation Trust.
It comes after it was revealed that the trust has had to postpone some elective surgery due to a rise in Covid cases.
In a statement first issued on Thursday, a spokesperson said: “Unfortunately we have had to postpone some routine elective activity for the next two weeks in response to increased demand for beds, due to high emergency admissions and growing numbers of patients with Covid-19.
“However, we are continuing to prioritise emergency urgent and cancer patients so that we manage those patients with the greatest clinical need.
“We don’t take these decisions lightly and we are sorry for the inconvenience and distress that this causes for patients. We will reschedule affected patients as soon as we can.”