NHS will take YEARS to get back on top of record-long routine operations waiting lists after Covid

The NHS will take years to get back on top of the record-high waiting lists for routine operations after Covid, top experts have warned.

NHS Confederation boss Danny Mortimer said today that waiting lists are ‘still going to be significantly higher than we have seen for a very, very long time’.

And Professor Neil Mortensen, president of the Royal College of Surgeons, said ‘a big plan’ will be needed to help tackle the ‘absolutely massive problem’. 

NHS England figures show 4.52million people are now waiting for routine operations, including almost 225,000 who haven’t been treated in over a year. Experts have even warned the waiting list could double to 10million by April.

Patients delayed seeking care because they heeded Government calls to ‘stay home, protect the NHS’ or feared getting the virus at their GP surgery or hospital. Hospitals postponed tens of thousands of non-urgent operations to free-up staff and beds for Covid cases.

The NHS resumed services over the summer but had to halt some non-urgent care again over winter as it struggled to cope with another wave.

Mr Mortimer — whose body represents hospital trusts across the country — said that politicians and the NHS have to be honest with the public about the scale of the task, with lists longer than they have been in 20 years.

The warnings follow claims by researchers that the pandemic turned the NHS into the ‘National Covid Service’. 

Mr Mortimer told Times Radio: ‘We do need that investment in facilities, investment in people, and we also need to understand that there are competing pressures because of the virus, because of the impact we have seen on people’s mental health that we are going to have to deal with for the longer term.

‘There is also the continued reality of the vaccination programme as well – all of those things need investment from the Government.’

Surgeons face a lack of access to theatres and the staff who work there, including anaesthetists, are very tired, he said. 

Professor Mortensen said: ‘I think surgeons are very prepared to be flexible. I think there needs to be more operating time. There needs to be more opening hours for surgery and surgery hubs.

‘We have already done well with remote outpatient appoints, with patients not having to come to hospital for assessment and follow-up, but staff are tired and need a pause, particularly for surgery we need the help of our friendly anaesthetists.

‘We can’t really do anything without having a really good theatre team.’

It comes after Reform think tank researchers found waiting lists could hit a record ten million by April – with one in six people in England needing treatment.

The waiting list could rise from 4.52million as of the end of December to ten million by April, modelling by the think tank and data analytics firm Edge Health suggest.

The number waiting on the list for more than a year is also expected to be 12,000 per cent higher by April than last March.

Almost 225,000 people went at least 52 weeks without treatment in December, according to NHS England.

For comparison, the figure was below 2,000 for almost every month in 2019, before Britain’s health service was slammed by the first wave of the pandemic.

Surgeons say tens of thousands of patients waiting to be seen will be in excruciating pain and unable to get on with ‘day-to-day family life or work’.

Leading medics also say the shocking data shows the ‘enormous toll’ of coronavirus on the health service.