Patients facing waits of over five and a half years for surgery
Elgan Hearn, Local Democracy Reporter
Welsh patients living near the English border could face waits of more than five and a half years for surgery at their nearest hospital just over the border.
The waiting times were raised as a performance “outlier” at the Robert Jone and Agnes Hunt (RJAH) orthopaedic hospital in Gobowen, near Oswestry in Shropshire, during a meeting by Powys Teaching Health Board (PTHB).
Independent member of the board Mick Giannasi, who flagged up the long waits at Wednesday’s meeting (28th January), said: “My eye was particularly drawn to the spinal treatment waits at RJAH exceeding 300 weeks.
“It actually sound worse when you describe it as over five years.
“I appreciate the numbers involved are probably very small, but a wait of that length is clearly far beyond what could be considered acceptable even in the current context we’re operating.
“Are there any levers we can apply, what triggers more robust action?”
As a way to address the issues raised in the performance report from November, he wondered whether the use of alternative providers, or the private sector, was being considered.
He added: “Not to put too blunt a point on it, in our private lives all of us if we had a service provider unable to deliver to an acceptable standard we would change that service provider.”
He raised questions about the support the health board was offering to patients who were on the waiting list, both in terms of clinical needs as well as communication and wellbeing.
Capacity concerns
PTHB’s Executive Director for Planning, Performance and Commissioning Nicola Johnson said: “We have raised it with Welsh Government to see if there’s any possibility of mutual aid or provision within Wales.
“Unfortunately, the main provider in Wales has very similar issues and the feedback we’ve had is that it’s probably not available.”
She also mentioned that talks had taken place to move their patients to another provider in England.
Ms Johnson said: “Again the feedback is that the capacity is not here and there are very few providers with that type of care – and it’s generally not suitable for private provision because of the risk to the patient.”
She believed this would need to be discussed again in more detail by the board after work had been done to work through all of the options and make choices.
Ms Johnson said: “They (RJAH) need to be able to rebalance how they are deploying their theatre capacity between the moderate and very complex ones.”
Executive Director of Primary Community Care and Mental Health Elaine Lorton added that PTHB does have a service which contacts those on the waiting list to provide “advice and guidance.”
She added that she would double check whether they had been in touch with this cohort of patients.
Chairman of the Board, Carl Cooper, asked whether the Finance and Performance committee could take the issue on board, which the committee chairman, Ronnie Alexander, said he was happy to proceed with.
Mr Alexander added that the report showed there was some sort of recovery plan in place but requested further details.
Ms Johnson said: “It’s an important part of our commissioning plan for next year to have a look at what that provider (RJAH) is offering for our population and our options.”
The board agreed the moves, and the committee agreed to bring the issue back to the board if any escalation is needed.
300-week waits
The report to the board said: “The Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital (RJAH) remains the most challenged English provider for long waits with a growing trend of over 104-week waiters and with all key wait bands reporting special cause concern.
“RJAH continue to face challenges with regards to their capacity and ability to see all patients within the Welsh Government targets.”
The number of breaches of the 104-week target were mentioned to have risen to 128.
It went on: “The breaches comprise of treatment waits for spinal, arthroplasty, knee and sports injuries and foot and ankle care.
“Very long waits now exceed 300 weeks for complex spinal surgery.
“The issue has been escalated to the provider, and a recovery plan has been requested against the agreed targets agreed.”
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For complex surgery like this the Welsh Government needs to purchase it from someone able to provide it. If that means Doncaster or Southampton then so be it. Bear in mind for many patients it restores their ability to work.
Or Dublin
And yet Wales is throwing open its doors to illegal migrants..nation of sanctuary!!every welsh council has signed up to the empty homes scheme which will see illegals in all our towns, all being prioritised for health care to the detriment of the tax paying locals..you couldn’t make it up ..it’s a nightmare unfolding and nothing we can do.
You do realise that “nation of sanctuary” just refers to Ukrainian refugees?
There is something you can do, leave your hate and racism out of Wales. It’s more damaging to our communities than any immigrant.
Well said.
The people to whom you refer are not illegal, and are not prioritised for anything.. Keep your ignorance and bigotry to yourself, and out of Cymru.
What these articles fail to mention is that Powys health boards policy says patients from Powys referred to hospital across the border requires patients to wail a minimum of 12 months for an initial consultation and a minimum of 2 years for treatment.