Recent figures released by the Department of Health reveal that waiting lists grew by 61% in the past year, with hundreds waiting more than a year to be offered treatment. 

With pressure from the Government to save £20bn over the next four years, many managers within the NHS are struggling to ensure patient care is not affected by the spending cuts. 

Figures released by the Department of Health has lead Labour to claim that the NHS is “going backwards under the Tories.”

Despite efforts by mangers ensure patient care is not affected by the spending cuts, 11,857 people in June had waited half a year to receive treatment, up from 7,360 from the same time last year.

Although the Government promised to protect frontline services, the reverse appears to be happening. One hospital trust in Kingston, London had announced earlier this year that 500 jobs would go as part of its plan to become a foundation trust, yet 2,314 patients have been waiting more than a year to begin treatment. 

Dr Mark Porter, chairman of the BMA’s consultants committee said, “Trusts are having to make huge cost savings as demand for services continue to grow. The NHS is being asked to do more with fewer resources, and it was always likely there would be an impact on waiting times.”

A spokesperson for Unison said, “It was proof positive that if you start cutting staff there’s a direct impact on patients.”

With more patients now waiting longer for treatment, could see a rise in patients taking legal action to force Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) to abide by the NHS constitution which gives patients a right to be seen within 18 weeks of referral by their GP. 

The latest findings show that about one in three PCTs in England are not hitting the target of 90% of patients to be seen within 18 weeks. The latest figures shows that 31,483 patients were waiting longer than 18 weeks to get treatment at hospital, up 9,063 on the figure from May 2010 when the coalition government was formed.

John Healey, Labour’s shadow health secretary, said, “The NHS is starting to go backwards again under the Tories. Instead of concentrating efforts on improving services for patients, ministers have spent a wasted year forcing through their reckless and damaging NHS reorganisation.”

However, the Department of Health countered Labour’s argument and pointed out that the NHS is keeping to the target of 90% of NHS patients to be seen within 18 weeks. Health minister Simon Burns, said, “Average waiting times are low and remain stable. The vast majority of patients still receive treatment within 18 weeks.” 

Figures released earlier in August showed that despite the drop in overall A&E attendance, the number of patients actually waiting more than fours hours has almost doubled in the last year. And the number of people waiting more than six weeks for key NHS tests has almost quadrupled in the last year, although more tests were carried out. 

Mike Farrar, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said, “The NHS made huge progress on waiting times in recent years and nobody wants to see those hard-won gains lost.”

“Our polling of NHS leaders has already shown 53% were worried that patient access, which includes waiting times, would suffer over the next 12 months. This data is further evidence that patient access will be stretched as the financial situation gets increasingly pressured.”

Sarah Tedford, chief operating officer for Kingston Hospital NHS Trust, said, “The hospital had carried out a major overhaul of the way it handled waiting lists after discovering a problem.”

“We would like to make it very clear that these delays are unacceptable and would like to apologise to those who have been affected by this. Whilst over three quarters of our patients are being treated within 18 weeks (in August) we are very sorry for the delays some have experienced. We would like to reassure patients that as soon as this came to out attention, we immediately took action. Over the next few months we plan to be treating extra patients to bring our waiting times down to within 18 weeks.”

As hospitals across the UK continue to struggle to meet budgetary constraints set by the government, the likelihood of further redundancies within the NHS is set to continue. 

With hospitals such as Kingston in London where 500 jobs have already gone this year, further cuts in staffing numbers will have a negative effect on patient care in England. The number of patients already waiting longer than 18-weeks to be treated will only increase. 

As managers struggle to maintain patient care and meet the government’s target to cut costs, MPP Locums, understands the pressures managers face by providing quality healthcare professionals throughout the UK, whenever and wherever the demands are needed. 

Established over 10 years ago, MPP Locums is an approved supplier of locum doctor jobs, doctor jobs to the NHS under the National Locum contract starting 1st July for the next three years. MPP Locums is regulated by the care Quality Commission and The NHS Purchasing and Supply Agency (PASA).

MPP Locums is one of the largest and fastest growing specialist recruitment agencies in the UK. 

Contact our registration team today if you want to be part of our growing medical specialist team. 

Long waits for orthopaedic care has left vulnerable patients being in pain and with disability for months, campaigners have said.

Arthritis Research UK, warn that situation across the UK is worsening and is particularly affecting the elderly the most. 

Currently patients needing orthopaedic care, such as hip and knee replacements, face the longest hospital waiting times in the NHS. 

The target of no one waiting longer than 18-weeks for treatment is not being met with one in six patients having to wait longer. Official figures show that this is the highest wait of any specialty treatment. Furthermore, around 5% have had to wait even longer than six months to be treated. 

Dr Benjamin Ellis, of Arthritis Research UK, said, “More and more NHS hospitals are trying to save money by making people wait for their joint replacement operations.”

“This decline in quality of NHS services is condemning large numbers of people to months of unnecessary pain and disability.”

“Depriving people of timely treatment, many of them older people, is unfair and risks going back to the days when people waited months and years to receive their new joint.”

Orthopaedic treatment is the most common type of non-emergency care carried out by hospitals.

Orthopaedic specialists see some 55,000 of the 300,000 patients undergoing elective treatment each month. The latest figures released show that more than 16% were not seen within 18 weeks in May, up from just over 13% last year. 

Under the NHS Constitution, patients have the right to be treated within an 18-week time frame, however the latest figures show this is not the case with more patients having to wait longer. 

The situation for orthopaedic care is twice as bad compared to people waiting for eye care problems where 8% wait longer than 18 weeks. For dermatology, the figure drops to less than 3% of patients having to wait longer than 18 weeks. 

These latest findings come after a report published last week by regulator Monitor predicated a number of foundation trusts – the group of top-performing hospitals in the NHS – would face difficulties keeping waiting times down in the coming year.

Peter Kay, president of the British Orthopaedic Association and former adviser to the Department of Health, said, “Problems were most acute in orthopaedics because of the ageing population and the fact that the NHS has never properly got on top of the issue.”

“We are a victim of our own success really. Hip and knee replacements have such good outcomes and as people are living longer, their joints wear out and they need these operations.”

“But even when we are getting waiting lists down we never really tackle the issue. We have relied on temporary theatres, Saturday surgeries and the private sector. The NHS has not expanded enough to create sustainable capacity and with money tight we are seeing things squeezed.”

“I am seeing more and more patients coming to me who are on powerful pain-killers like morphine. That should not be happening on such as scale, but they are getting stuck in the system, not getting referred straight away, and waiting longer than they should.”

The Department of Health pointed out that some of the longest waits could be because people where choosing to wait beyond 18 weeks for valid personal or medical reasons.

A spokesman said, “Waiting times for orthopaedic care were still ‘low and stable’, while the average wait was 12 weeks.”

“This is against a backdrop of rising demand for NHS services, so the low waiting times are a testimony to the hard work of the NHS staff.”

With more patients having to wait beyond the 18-week time frame for orthopaedic surgery, the cutbacks being implemented across the NHS is clearly affecting patient care. Patients are now left in pain due to lack of resources for over six months in some cases. 

As cutbacks are being felt across the NHS, the current situation is clearly not acceptable, especially when the government has committed to maintain and improve patient care through their reforms. With NHS Trusts across the UK looking to streamline services and make financial savings where possible, MPP Locums understands the financial pressures managers have to deal with in providing patient care. 

MPP Locums is one of the largest and fastest growing specialist recruitment agencies in the UK. 

Established over 10 years ago, MPP Locums works closely with our partners to provide quality healthcare professionals where the demands are needed across the UK. 

MPP Locums is an approved supplier of locum doctor jobs, doctor jobs to the NHS under the National Locum contract starting 1st July for the next three years. MPP Locums is regulated by the care Quality Commission and The NHS Purchasing and Supply Agency (PASA).

Contact our registration team today if you want to be part of our growing medical specialist team.

Health Secretary, Andrew Lansley says, “NHS managers are abusing the system by making patients wait longer for treatment.”

Mr Lansley was speaking out after a competition watchdog criticised the way non-emergency operations such as hip replacements, were being run.

The Co-operation and Competition Panel (CCP), said, “Some primary care trusts had introduced minimum waiting times to save money and level-down performance.”

It said, “Some patients were forced to go private or died before they got care.” However in response to this, NHS managers reacted angrily to the claim.  

David Stout, director of the Primary Care Trust Network, said, “Making claims without evidence that patients are dying as a result of longer waiting lists will cause unnecessary public anxiety and alarm.”

“Commissioners take very seriously their role to ensure that patient health is not put at risk waiting for the care they need.”

Despite the claims, the panel did not name any of the individual trust nor was it able to say how many places were in fact adopting such practices. 

Furthermore, the claim of patients dying before being treated is unclear because as there is no record of what patients were dying from, as the treatment they were waiting for was non life-saving care. 

However, the report cited an anonymous example where one trust was insisting patients wait at least 15 weeks for treatment. Despite patients having to wait 15 weeks for treatment, this still falls within the 18-week time frame to be seen, even though many hospitals can see patients more quickly than that. 

Mr Lansley said, “The findings justified his reform programme, which aims to put doctors in charge of decision making.”

“This is exactly why we need to put patients’ interests first.”

“Too many PCTs have been operating in a cynical environment where they can game the system – and in which political targets, particularly the maximum 18 week waiting time target, are used to actually delay treatment.”

“When GPs, specialist doctors and nurses are making the decisions, as they will under our plans, they will plan care on the basis of the clinical needs of patients and their right to access the best service, including the least possible waiting time.”

One of the effects of minimum waiting times is money can be saved by scheduling treatment to be carried out in the next financial year. 

Furthermore, since 2006 patients have had the right to choose where they go for treatment including approved private hospitals. However private health firms seeing NHS patients have argued it erodes their competitive advantage because they are often able to see patients more quickly compared to NHS hospitals and by making patients wait longer for treatment erodes their competitive advantage. 

In addition to looking into waiting times, the CCP report also looked at an array of other anti-competitive and patient unfriendly practices currently being employed by NHS trusts, as well as introducing minimum waiting times. These included giving local NHS hospitals guaranteed levels of treatment, rationing the range of treatments private hospitals could provide to the NHS and capping the number of patients that could go outside the local area.

PCTs had argued the measures were needed to protect local hospitals.

With the government continuing to come under attack over its NHS Reforms such as the recent report by the Co-operation and Competition Panel, the NHS of the future is far from being resolved. There are many within the healthcare profession including clinicians and managers who feel that an NHS that is more open to competition can only be a good thing. 

Patient care and the right choice of treatment for patients will become more open as NHS hospitals compete with private health firms to deliver the best treatment for their patients. GPs and GP Locums will be able to shop around to ensure their patients’ needs are met and that the cost of treatment is competitive and value for money. 

With more competition, advocates of a more open competitive NHS could see more doctor, GP and GP locum jobs being created as health care providers adapt and change to provide more services and flexibility that fits with their patients’ working lifestyle. 

As the NHS continues to modernise and change under the current government, MPP Locums continues to provide healthcare professionals and locum staff across the UK to NHS Trusts and Private Healthcare providers. 

Established over 10 years ago, MPP Locums is one of the largest and fastest growing specialist recruitment agencies in the UK. 

MPP Locums is an approved supplier of locum doctor jobs, doctor jobs to the NHS under the National Locum contract starting 1st July for the next three years. MPP Locums is regulated by the care Quality Commission and The NHS Purchasing and Supply Agency (PASA).

Contact our registration team today if you want to be part of our growing medical specialist team.