Almost 5,000 residents in Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire (BNSSG) are waiting more than a year for hospital treatment, new figures reveal. But the number of patients facing an even longer wait are now falling, the latest data shows.
A total of 4,763 people referred to hospital had not been seen within 52 weeks as of June, a leap from 4,164 the previous month, according to a report to a BNSSG Integrated Care Board (ICB) meeting. That equals 5.9 per cent of the total waiting list – one in 17 people.
The report said the number increased at both North Bristol NHS Trust (NBT), which runs Southmead Hospital, and University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Trust (UHBW), which is in charge of the BRI, Bristol Children’s Hospital and Weston General. It said: “The BNSSG position is driven mainly by waits at NBT (1,995) and UHBW (2,081), with the remaining 687 breaches split across 45 other providers.
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“Focused work to facilitate elective recovery ambitions are being implemented.” The report said the number of patients waiting more than 78 weeks fell from 801 in May to 744 in June, while those who were not seen within 104 weeks – two years – dropped from 112 to 69.
“For planned admissions, the total waiting list size for the BNSSG population worsened from 76,803 in May to 80,712 in June,” it said. “BNSSG performance was ranked 35th out of 102 CCGs nationally (up from 46th in May) and ranked second out of six CCGs in the South West (same as in May).”
The report to the meeting on Thursday, September 1, said only 57 per cent of emergency patients at the area’s A&E departments were admitted or discharged within the four-hour maximum target – a drop from 62 per cent in May – and that this was the same as the national average. Less than half of urgent cancer referrals were completed within the expected fortnight limit, which was also worse than the previous month.
The report said factors included “persistence of a very high number” of patients in acute beds with “no criteria to reside” – referred to informally as bed blockers – along with the impact of covid on the flow of patients through the system and coronavirus sickness absences affecting staff in all NHS organisations which totalled 499 by the start of July, reflecting levels in the community. It said: “This has reduced into August with 166 as at August 15.
“This primarily impacted rates of simple and complex discharge, the ability to staff acute escalation beds, and capacity for admission avoidance and community services.” There were also “persistently high acute covid inpatient numbers, flatlining with 73 on August 15”. Ambulance handover delays also worsened in June, it added.
Read next:
- Bristol hospital trust apologises as patient waits almost three years for care during NHS backlog
- Patients at South Bristol Community Hospital waited more than three hours to be assessed 'due to the pandemic'
- NHS needs 13,000 extra hospital beds to improve 'grim' A&E waits - report
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