April’s monthly performance data shows that despite ongoing pressures, hardworking NHS staff in the South East are going above and beyond to accelerate the number of planned procedures.

While continuing to work through Covid backlogs, the number of patients waiting 104 weeks or more for planned treatment in the South East of England has reduced by 57 per cent in just over a month.

NHS staff have developed innovative ways of working to tackle backlogs that built up through the pandemic to keep people safe, while prioritising those who needed urgent care.

Ashford and St Peter’s Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Medway NHS Foundation Trust, Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust, Isle of Wight NHS Trust, Portsmouth University Hospital NHS Trust and Surrey and Sussex Healthcare are among trusts in England that have already eliminated patients waiting 104 weeks or more.

At Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust, multi-disciplinary teams are carrying out daily monitoring of patients waiting for planned procedures and increasing pre-operative assessment capacity so that patients do not have to wait more than 52 weeks for planned treatment. The Trust’s diagnostic capacity has also increased with the opening of the Community Diagnostic Centre – with 8,000 additional scans since September 2021 and a second MRI scanner due to be installed to help increase capacity.

Isle of Wight NHS Trust redesigned the way they use theatres to meet the current surgical demand and dedicated two wards to planned care.

Portsmouth Hospital University NHS Trust created a Covid secure planned surgical pathway and two ringfenced planned care wards to support surgical demand while investment in an additional surgical robot, in September 2021, has improved productivity and created greater capacity for those clinically urgent cases requiring robotic surgery.

Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust set up a separate ‘Covid protected area’ at the start of the pandemic so the most urgent procedures could continue and they could resume operations quickly, even throughout the peaks of the pandemic response. The trust also ran extra clinics at weekends to make sure patients were seen as quickly as possible.

Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trusts opened a new planned care hospital specialising in planned, non-emergency operations for Orthopaedics and Plastics, Ophthalmology and Lithotripsy in Ascot this March, increasing access to diagnostic facilities and reducing the number of patients waiting for planned treatment.

By creating a one stop shop for pre-operative assessments and outpatients’ appointments, Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust reduced the waiting times for operations. The Trust also opened a brand new mobile stand-alone cataract suite in the grounds of Stoke Mandeville Hospital, which enables the Trust to perform 80-100 additional cataract surgeries each week.

Claudia Griffith, South East Director of Performance and Improvement at NHS England and NHS Improvement said: “NHS staff are adapting ways of working to address the backlogs that accumulated during the pandemic, and the latest figures show that those efforts are having a positive impact in reducing the number of people experiencing long waits for care.

“Innovative new approaches are ensuring patients on waiting lists are seen and procedures are carried out as soon as possible. It can be frustrating to be waiting for planned care, but our dedicated staff continue to do everything they can to ensure people are treated safely and as soon as possible.”

Sir James Mackey, NHS elective recovery adviser, said: “Staff have successfully begun to reduce the longest waits for care, which ultimately means people who have been in need for longest, are now getting the care they need.

“This progress is despite NHS staff this winter facing record 999 volumes and A&E attendances, on top of staff dealing with 170,000 Covid inpatients and 3.7 million days being lost due to Covid-related staff absences.

“There is a long and tough road ahead for the NHS to recover from Covid and help the patients we need to, but these latest numbers demonstrate clearly that the NHS is making the best possible use of the additional investment provided to us, starting with those in greatest need, as part of the NHS Elective Recovery Plan and initiatives like new care units to help people before and after surgery, dedicated diagnostic hubs, alongside creating additional ward capacity.

“As we have said throughout the pandemic, it is vitally important that anybody who has health needs continues to come forward, so that staff can help you with the best options for your care.”