Fewer people are now on waiting lists for treatment or tests at Wigan's hospitals
The number of people waiting for routine treatment at Wigan’s hospitals fell by nearly 1,000 in just a month, new figures show.
Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (WWL) has been working to reduce waiting times for elective surgery and diagnostic tests.
New data from NHS England shows there were 45,540 people on the waiting list for non-urgent operations or treatment at the trust in January, down from 46,450 patients at the end of December.
Of those, 1,105 (2.4 per cent) had been waiting for longer than a year, compared to 2.8 per cent the month before.
The waiting list in England decreased for the third month in a row, with an estimated 7.25 million treatments waiting to be carried out at the end of January.
This is down from 7.29 million treatments at the end of December and is the lowest level since February 2023, when it stood at 7.22 million.
There was also a fall in the number of people waiting for important diagnostic tests at borough hospitals at the end of February.
A total of 12,136 people were waiting for one of 14 standard tests – such as an MRI scan, non-obstetric ultrasound or gastroscopy – which was down from 13,022 people in December.
Of those, 3,685 (30.4 per cent) had been waiting for more than six weeks, while 657 had waited for more than 13 weeks.
Non-obstetric ultrasounds were most in demand, with 4,343 people on the waiting list, while 2,717 were in need of an MRI and 1,997 wanted an echocardiogram.
The longest waits were for audiology assessments, where 50.8 per cent of patients had waited for more than six weeks, and echocardiograms (49.8 per cent).
WWL carried out 1,290 planned tests, 3,824 unplanned tests and 11,046 waiting list tests in the month.
The Andrew Foster Endoscopy Unit recently opened at Wigan Infirmary – named after the trust’s former chief executive and chairman – and will offer quicker access to endoscopy procedures.
But how the latest resident doctors’ strike will impact the improving trend remains to be seen.
WWL was asked for a comment but at the time of publication, none had been offered.