Several patients wait 18 months for treatment at Wigan's hospitals – as Government misses target

Several patients were facing “routine” waits of 18 months or more for treatment at Wigan’s hospitals, new figures show.
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The Government and NHS England set a goal of clearing all waits of more than 18 months by April – excluding very complex cases or patients who choose to wait longer.

But the latest figures show the Government has fallen short, with 41 per cent of the 10,737 cases falling into the category of people choosing to wait or exceptionally complex cases – leaving the remainder as routine waits.

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Seventeen patients had been waiting for treatment at Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (WWL) for 18 months or more – with the figures suggesting nine were routine waits.

Most commonly patients were waiting this long for gynaecology services, with seven doing so.

Shadow health secretary Wes Streeting said: “This is just the latest broken promise that shows you can’t trust the Tories with the NHS.”

“Ministers blame strikes, as if they are mere bystanders. It was their refusal to speak to nurses and junior doctors that forced them out on strike in the first place," he added.

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This waiting list peaked in September 2021, when nearly 250,000 people were waiting 18 months for treatment – including 1,168 at WWL.

Sir Julian Hartley, chief executive of NHS Providers, said: “Trusts have pulled out all the stops to cut by 90 per cent the number of people waiting 78 weeks or more for care – a remarkable achievement against a backdrop of months of strikes, severe staff shortages and a yawning gap between capacity and growing demand.

“Staff and trust leaders deserve credit for continuing to work flat out to see people as quickly as possible and to improve the flow of patients through the whole health system.

“But there’s a long way to go to get waiting times and lists down across physical and mental services to where patients and the NHS want.”

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In total, the figures show 49,784 patients were waiting for treatment at WWL at the end of March, with 2,534 waiting for a year or more.

Health Secretary Steve Barclay said: “Thanks to the hard work and dedication of healthcare staff backed by Government support, the NHS has now cut 18-month waits by more than 91 per cent."