Newcastle's hospitals bucked a worrying national trend during April by reducing their waiting list for surgery for the first time since the pandemic.
While there are still more than 96,000 people waiting for elective surgery at the Newcastle Hospitals NHS Trust which runs the Freeman and the RVI, that's around a thousand less than a month earlier. This comes despite rises at the other four acute hospital trusts in our region, which echo the national situation which sees six and a half million people waiting for treatment.
In Newcastle progress has also been made to reduce the number of people waiting more than a year and more than two years for treatment respectively - but this remains a real issue.
Read more: 'Inherent pressure' in Newcastle hospitals with 40 Covid positive patients and treatment backlog
Overall, at the end of April - according to NHS England data - there were 96,253 people waiting for treatment at Newcastle's hospitals. That's 1,129 fewer people waiting than at the end of March. Of those still on the waiting list though, more than three in ten have been waiting more than 18 weeks. That's the national target.
There were also still 84 people who had been waiting more than two years - and 3,629 people waiting at least one year. The latter figure grew over the last month. The Newcastle trust is working to bring down waiting lists, with initiatives such as the new day-case treatment centre at the Freeman set to open in late summer. It's waiting lists are among the highest in the country due to the size of the trust and its status as a centre for many specialist services.
Last week, the trust's chief exec Dame Jackie Daniel warned: "I expect this will be a year of transition – when we may need to refocus quickly and make some fundamental shifts in the way we work so that we can respond effectively to the tasks and challenges we are presented with. Across the wider health system, I am seeing leaders and politicians realising the scale and scope of the job that needs to be done."
On South Tyneside and Sunderland's wards, there were more 51,640 people waiting for treatment - the first time this has topped 50,000. 76 have been waiting over a year. In Gateshead, 11,335 people are now on the waiting list, while 30,759 patients are waiting for care in Northumbria Healthcare's hospitals. The figure is 35,164 in County Durham and Darlington.
Regionally, NHS figures highlighted that performance against the 18 week waiting times target was above the England average in the North East and North Cumbria. At the end of April, 73% of people across the North East and North Cumbria were waiting less than 18 weeks for their treatment to start. For England as a whole, the average is 62%.
Across the region, in 13 months since March 2021 the number of people waiting for more than a year has also fallen by 11,000.
A total of 6.5 million people around England were waiting to start treatment at the end of April, up from 6.4 million in March. It is the highest number since records began in August 2007.
Professor Sir Stephen Powis, national medical director for NHS England, said: “The new figures show our hard-working NHS staff are making significant progress in ensuring people waiting the longest time for care are getting treated.
“There is no doubt the NHS still faces pressures – including a renewed increase in Covid patients – and the latest figures show just how important community and social care are in helping people in hospital leave when they are fit to do so, not just because it is better for patients but because it helps free up precious NHS bed space.”
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