By Anna Whittaker, Local Democracy Reporter
Nottingham University Hospitals Trust has made major progress in reducing its waiting lists for people needing non-urgent operations.
The trust has reduced the number of patients waiting more than 18 months by 26 per cent from January to February 2023, despite winter pressures and strike action.
The total number of patients waiting more than 18 months for their planned operations, including hip and knee replacements, hernia repairs and ear, nose and throat surgery, has fallen from 803 on 15 January 2023 to 591 as of 12 February 2023.
The trust, which runs Nottingham’s Queen’s Medical Centre and Nottingham City Hospital, has created more space in surgery for those waiting the longest.
It has also invested in a third surgical robot and is using artificial intelligence to ensure the maximum number of patients can be seen in a day.
A new surgical ward – the Jubilee Unit – opened at City Hospital earlier this month, allowing more operations from the Queen’s Medical Centre to take place at City Hospital, which is less affected by emergency pressures.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has said reducing NHS waiting lists is one of his targets for 2023.
Nationally there are 7.2 million people on NHS waiting lists, the equivalent of around one in eight people.
Clinical Lead for the Elective Pathway and Consultant Anaesthetist at the trust, Dr Adam Carney, said the move was a “stepping stone” in the right direction.
Now, patients can sometimes be sent home on the same day after operations like hysterectomies, hip replacements and knee replacements, if it is safe to do so.
This frees up bed days for other elective patients who need to stay in hospital longer.
Staff have also been asked to work extra shifts and investment has been made into technology and new operating theatres.
Dr Carney said: “We’ve come out the back of the Covid pandemic when waiting lists grew and grew because we turned our facilities over to emergency care.
“The targets are ambitious because we have to balance the patients who have been waiting longest with emergency work in our hospitals.
“We’ve doubled the number of cataracts we can do on an operating list from an average of three or four to eight, nine or 10 in a day.
“We have increased our day case operating. For a number of operations where traditionally patients stayed overnight, they can now go home the same day.
“There has been investment in new robots for surgery.
“It’s obvious to us the detriment that these long waits are having on patients. That’s one of the main reasons our staff are throwing everything at this.”
Last year NHS trusts were given a target to tackle the waiting lists for people who had waited longer than two years.
At one point the trust had more than 400 patients who had waited over two years for surgery – a backlog which has now virtually been eliminated.
Dr Carney added: “I want to thank our staff, they have gone above and beyond, they have worked flexibly, worked longer and in different specialities and that’s a significant facet of why we have made the reductions we have done.”
This summer, three new operating theatres will also open which the trust says will enable further capacity for planned and emergency operations.
NUH has also been awarded £35m of Government funding to build a new surgical elective hub at City Hospital, which will allow planned operations to be ‘ring-fenced’ so they are not affected by emergency pressures. The hub is due to open in 2024.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has said: “Cutting waiting lists is one of my top five priorities and this shows we are delivering on our promise to patients.
“There is still a long way to go but with two year waits virtually eliminated, and 18 month waits reduced by a quarter in a single month – our plan to recover the Covid elective backlog is working and we will keep building on this progress so every patient gets the care they need.”
