Oldham MP: Managing NHS backlogs and waiting times in England ‘at serious risk’

Oldham East and Saddleworth MP Debbie Abrahams has slammed the Government in the light of a report, by the National Audit Office (NAO), which says the plan to reduce long waits for NHS elective and cancer care services by 2025 is at ‘serious risk’.

The funding the Government allocated for recovering services has not kept pace with inflation, and the NHS faces significant workforce and productivity issues.

At the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, the NHS in England had not met its elective waiting time performance standard for four years, nor its full set of eight operational standards for cancer services for six years.

Due to the pandemic, the number of people receiving elective and cancer care then reduced sharply.

Between March 2020 and August 2022, on average there were 8,300 Covid-19 patients in hospital in England at any one time, with peaks in this number during waves of infection.

Backlogs of patients, both visible on waiting lists and hidden because they had not yet seen a doctor, grew rapidly.

In February 2022, NHS England (NHSE) published a plan to recover elective and cancer care over the three years up to March 2025.

It has received funding for this recovery, which is taking place at a time when the NHS is managing other major pressures, including ongoing effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, access to primary care, the performance of urgent and emergency care, workforce gaps, and problems with the supply of adult social care.

The issue is reflected locally in a report by the Greater Manchester Integrated Care Partnership, titled 'Oldham Elective Recovery Update', which stated that in June 2022 the current all-provider Oldham waiting list had grown from 28,795 to 31,274, an in-month increase of 2,479 patients.

Figures from July 2022 showed there were 2,494 patients waiting at 44 weeks for treatment.

In August 2022, figures released by the NHS on cancer treatment waits showed just 48.1 per cent of patients at the Northern Care Alliance (NCA), the Trust which includes Royal Oldham Hospital, waited fewer than 62 days, of being referred to the hospital by their GP, to start their cancer treatment.

Ms Abrahams, who is a former chair of the Rochdale Primary Care Trust, reacted to the NAO findings by saying: “The Government’s failure to meet its unambitious targets will leave more patients in pain and discomfort for years to come, often unable to work or enjoy their lives.

“The Conservatives will blame everything from Covid to strikes for their failure. 

“The truth is that after a decade of Tory mismanagement, the NHS went into the pandemic with waiting lists already at record levels and 100,000 staff shortages. 

“It’s not that they didn’t fix the roof when the sun was shining, they dismantled the roof and ripped up the floorboards.

“The Conservatives want to lower patients’ expectations, whereas Labour will raise standards of care. 

“My heart goes out to the hardworking NHS staff that have cared for us right through the pandemic with little or no recognition from the Government, save clapping them from their front door steps.

“We will give the NHS the staff it needs to treat patients on time again, training a new generation of doctors and nurses, paid for by abolishing non-doms.”

---

Do you have a story for us? Want to tell us about something going on in and around Oldham? Let us know by emailing news@oldham-chronicle.co.uk , calling our Oldham-based newsroom on 0161 633 2121 , tweeting us @oldhamchronicle or messaging us through our Facebook page. All contact will be treated in confidence.