Tens of thousands of Wigan patients waiting for hospital treatment

The data comes as a leading health charity says the NHS is grappling with "really serious challenges", as typical winter pressures are to be made worse by the cost-of-living crisis and Covid-19.

NHS England figures show 44,125 patients were waiting for non-urgent elective operations or treatment at Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (WWL) at the end of August – up from 42,974 in July, and 33,708 in Aug-21.

Of those, 2,644 (six per cent) had been waiting for longer than a year.

The median waiting time from referral at an NHS trust to treatment at WWL was 15 weeks at the end of August – up from 14 weeks in July.

Nationally, seven million people were waiting to start treatment at the end of August.

Siva Anandaciva, chief analyst at health charity King's Fund, said the NHS was struggling with "crumbling buildings and outdated equipment, long waiting lists for care, high levels of Covid-19 and growing staff shortages."

"Successive governments’ refusal to confront the worsening health and care workforce crisis and their chronic underinvestment in NHS buildings and infrastructure has created this mix of problems.

"This winter, typical seasonal pressures on NHS services will be amplified by Covid-19 and a cost-of-living crisis that could impact on people’s physical and mental health," she added.

Separate figures show 1.5 million patients in England were waiting for a key diagnostic test in August – the same as in July.

At WWL, 8,692 patients were waiting for one of 12 standard tests, such as an MRI scan, non-obstetric ultrasound or gastroscopy at this time.

Of them, 2,275 (26 per cent) had been waiting for at least six weeks.

NHS Providers, which acts on behalf of health organisations in England, said the level of pressure across the health system "remains concerning".

It pointed to recent news of a shortage in blood supplies as creating delays for non-urgent operations.

Other figures from NHS England show that of 81 patients urgently referred by the NHS who were treated at WWL in August, 57 were receiving cancer treatment within two months of their referral.

A month previously – when 79 patients were referred – 57 were treated within 62 days.

In Aug 2021, 61 patients were treated within this period, out of 73 that were referred.

Mary Fleming, WWL’s deputy chief executive, said: “To reduce the long waiting times for non-urgent operations or treatment, NHS England challenged all NHS trusts to have no patient waiting beyond 78 weeks by the end of March next year; Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh Teaching Hospitals Foundation Trust is currently on track to meet this target.

“As well as dealing with the most clinically urgent and cancer patients, those that need their procedures performed within a month, there are approximately 90 patients who have currently waited over 78 weeks for their surgery, with the exception of those patients that have chosen to wait longer.

“We do however have pressures within our outpatient waiting lists in a minority of specialties, such as gynaecology and gastroenterology and we are working with partners in Greater Manchester and across the Wigan health and social care economy to address these backlogs.”