Stockport NHS system cannot hide behind Covid, bosses say

NHS chiefs said it will take some time to bounce back from the impact of the pandemic

A senior NHS manager has warned the service cannot "hide behind Covid", with challenges expected to get "worse before they get better".

Dr Cath Munro, of Stockport Clinical Commissioning Group, said the situation before the pandemic was, in some areas, already "a struggle".

Latest figures showed long waits were more common in areas including general surgery and gastroenterology.

"It's not 'Covid goes and everything sorts itself out'," Dr Munro said.

Speaking at a meeting of the CCG, she said staff were assessing how staff sickness - both seasonal and Covid-related - had contributed to the challenge.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service said November's data for the authority showed:

• A "significant deterioration" in the two-week wait target for breast symptomatic referrals where the GP does not suspect cancer - dropping to 37% from 72%

• A decline in achieving the 62-day target between the first diagnosis for cancer and its treatment

• Waiting times for endoscopies remained "challenging", despite extra resources

Andrea Green, the CCG's chief accountable officer, said "our expectation is there will be further deterioration before we have improvement".

She added: "The recovery is going to take us several years."

Her comments were made after non-urgent surgery and appointments were temporarily paused in Greater Manchester due to the impact of the Omicron variant.

However, Ms Green said work was under way to get on top of the backlog, including allowing GPs to directly refer patients for an endoscopy.

She said health checks for people with learning difficulties and disabilities had also returned to target levels of up to 65% for those eligible.