More patients waiting over 52 weeks from referral to treatment in Shropshire

The NHS Shropshire Community Health Trust (Shropcom) has been set a national target of having nobody waiting over 65 weeks for referral to treatment (RTT) by March 2024.

Shropcom chief executive Patricia Davies said that the health body were ‘on track’ to delivering the NHS England target.

Mrs Davies highlighted the increase in waiting times due to the ‘level of demand’ on lower limb orthopaedic services.

She added that the trust is ‘utilising support’ from the independent sector to provide additional radiology resources and ‘securing additional capacity’ to help reduce waiting times.

“We have some pinch points particularly related to muscular skeletal services and waits, particularly for lower limb orthopaedic services which are linked with other partners in terms of delivering those services,” Mrs Davies told Shropcom’s board meeting.

Mrs Davies highlighted the increase as part of her monthly chief executive report to the Shropcom board  for August.

She said that the trust continued to ‘experience challenges with performance of recovering services’ which had particularly been seen in services where patients require diagnostic investigations or orthopaedic consultant support.

Mrs Davies added that the diagnostic challenges were part of national pressure due to shortages of radiologists and an increase in demand for imaging studies.

“We are working closely with our system partners to ensure we are prioritising our longest-waiting patients and those whose clinical needs are highest,” the report to board members said.

“We are utilising support from the independent sector to provide additional radiology resources and increasing our clinical outpatient capacity to further support recovery.”

Mrs Davies added that there had been a ‘positive reduction’ in waiting times for the ‘majority of diagnostics’, with those waiting for ultrasound scans the exception.

“Whilst there has been significant progress seen in many services, the trust has seen an increase in the number of patients waiting 52 weeks and above,” she concluded.

“This increase is due to the level of demand on lower limb orthopaedic services. The trust is in the process of securing additional capacity to support the reduction of patients waiting above 52 weeks and we remain confident of achieving the national target of zero 65+ week waiting patients by the end of March 2024.”