Earlier this month, The Health Foundation published its report on the impact of Covid-19 on treatment times for elective procedures.
It identified that the NHS was already struggling to meet the 18-week referral to treatment guidelines prior to the Covid-19 pandemic. More than one in six patients were already waiting more than 18 weeks for the commencement of their treatment.
The need to protect NHS capacity during the first wave of the pandemic led to a postponement in elective procedures, and also impacted on the commencement of new patients on treatment pathways.
Some of the main findings of the report are as follows:
• The number of people waiting for the commencement of their consultant-led care at the end of August 2020 was lower than it was at the end of last year but this is due to the fact that fewer new pathways have been commenced during the pandemic
• In comparison to 2019, the number of treatment pathways for consultant-led elective procedures which have been completed during 2020 has fallen dramatically, although there are signs of recovery
• The number of new patient pathways for elective surgery and procedures which have been commenced has also fallen since the start of the pandemic
• The procedures which have suffered the greatest reduction in both completed treatment pathways and implementation of new pathways are trauma and orthopaedic surgery, oral surgery and ophthalmology
• There are some regional differences in the extent of the impact with the south-west appearing to experience the smallest drop in completion of treatment pathways
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