Local Health Trust Has 48,000 People on Waiting List
Ruth Cadbury blasts government for 'decade of failure' in managing NHS
Ruth Cadbury volunteering at West Middlesex Hospital
Recently published data has revealed that there are over 48,000 people on the waiting list for a local NHS trust.
Chelsea and Westminster Hospital Trust, which includes West Middlesex Hospital, now has a record number of people waiting for treatment. Of the 48,548 on the list, 583 people have had to wait for more than a year.
Ruth Cadbury, MP for Brentford & Isleworth has slammed the government for what she describes as ‘decade of failure’ following the release of the figures.
At the outbreak of the Covid pandemic there were 4.4 million people on the NHS waiting list in England, then a record high. Nationally, the standard of 92% of people seen within 18 weeks of a referral has not been met since 2016. Now, 1 in every 9 people in England are on the NHS waiting list.
Last week the Government published its elective care recovery plan for the NHS in which it conceded that waiting lists would only begin to reduce in 2024. Ms Cadbury says this report failed to address the key question of workforce shortages in the NHS. She says the service went into the latest wave of Covid infections with the longest waiting list ever, understaffed and overstretched.
She added, “Record numbers of people across Hounslow are waiting for care and they are waiting longer than ever before, often in pain and distress. Our local health care staff at West Mid and across the borough worked heroically throughout the pandemic to keep us all safe and they went above and beyond to provide life-saving care. This hospital backlog is not their fault, it is the fault of Governments across the last decade who have failed to invest in our NHS.
“As the Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries admits, a decade of mismanagement left the NHS ‘wanting and inadequate’ when Covid struck, and patients are now left to wait too long as a result. Our NHS is being stretched beyond capacity, yet the Government is asleep at the wheel.’’
A Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said before the publication of these figures, “It’s evident the pandemic placed unprecedented pressure on the NHS and had a huge knock-on effect on our health services. We estimate that about 11m people didn’t come forward for treatment during the pandemic who otherwise would have.
“We’re doing everything we can to bust the Covid backlogs, grow our workforce, reduce waiting times and expand health infrastructure, backed by record investment. We have record numbers of doctors, nurses and healthcare staff working in the NHS and the number of people waiting two years has reduced by two-thirds since January, meaning thousands more people have now accessed vital operations and procedures.”
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July 22, 2022