It has been reported in the last month that more than 100,000 people are waiting for treatment at Leicester hospitals, with Leicester having one of the longest waiting lists in the country.
In June 2023, there were around 116,000 people awaiting treatment at the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust (UHL).
However, this does show improvements from previous figures. In October 2022, the waiting list was 130,835 people.
Data from February 2023 showed that there were 13,989 people waiting more than a year for their treatments at UHL.
Deputy Chief Operating Officer at UHL, Siobhan Frazer, said:
“Nationally, we are seeing a peak in the size of waiting lists, everybody’s waiting list is growing. In Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland we have seen for the first time in four years a reduction. So we are starting to see it go down, which is brilliant and I’m incredibly pleased about that.
But that is starting to slow off, so we are going to do a bit more work to find out where the demand is coming from so we are concentrating on that side of the problem as well. We cannot take our foot off the gas on this.”
This is not the only area where UHL seems to be struggling.
In May, it was reported that hospitals in Leicester had been found to have some of the worse A&E waiting times in England. Out of 179 hospital trusts in England, UHL ranked 171st for the number of patients being admitted to A&E within four hours.
Statistics and data for March 2023 showed only 55.8% of patients were admitted to A&E at UHL within four hours, which is significantly under the NHS’ target of 95% and the England average of 71.5%.
Comment
It has been well reported that the impact of Covid-19 and the backlogs this caused continues to have negative repercussions to this day. We’ve then seen the disruption caused by the junior doctor strikes this year which only seems to have made the picture worse.
It is clear that UHL are facing significant problems.
Delays with treatment can have catastrophic consequences, so it is pleasing to see that UHL are fully aware of the issues and are attempting to make progress to resolve them. However, there is obviously a very long way to go and the risk to patients is at an all-time high.
How can Nelsons help
Danielle Young is a Legal Director in our Medical Negligence team, which has been ranked in tier one by the independently researched publication, The Legal 500.
If you have any questions in relation to the subjects discussed in this article, then please get in touch with Danielle or another member of the team in Derby, Leicester, or Nottingham on 0800 024 1976 or via our online form.
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