19.04.12
Report suggests average waiting times rose in 2011
A new report from the Patients Association suggests that waiting times for many elective operations rose in 2011 compared to 2010.
From information supplied to it by 93 ofEngland’s 170 acute hospital trusts, the association said that the average wait before having a new knee fitted rose from 88.9 days to 99.2 days, while patients needing hernia surgery typically waited 78.3 days in 2011 compared with 70.4 the year before.
Prof Norman Williams, president of the Royal College of Surgeons ofEngland, told the Guardian: “It does look as if this report has confirmed something we have been worried about for the last two years, that patients are waiting longer in certain trusts to receive the treatment that they require and that fewer patients are getting the operations they need.
“We are very concerned about this and really worried because patients who do not get the treatment they need within an appropriate time could be storing up problems for the future.”
Katherine Murphy, the Patient Association chief executive, said: “Patients are calling our helpline to tell us they are being left to wait in agony and that their desperate calls to the hospital for help are being ignored. We hear lots of talk from the government about waiting times falling but whilst this may be true in other areas, it doesn't address the problem in relation to elective surgical procedures.”
The DH said the report was based on only partial data, and that overall, average waiting times for operations involving things like orthopaedics, eye medicine and general surgery “have either fallen in the last year or remain stable at very low historical levels”.
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