Hundreds waiting over two years for treatment in Staffordshire

University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust, which runs Royal Stoke Hospital, has "particular challenges", a meeting heard

Over 500 patients have been waiting more than two years for planned treatment following the coronavirus pandemic.

Thousands more in Staffordshire have been waiting over a year for elective procedures, the county council heard.

Mark Warnes, from Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Clinical Commissioning Groups, said there are "ongoing challenges" nationally.

Making progress, he said, will take "years, not months".

Speaking to the council's health scrutiny committee, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said, Mr Warnes told councillors there had been "good progress" up to winter, but that the health service had faced challenges since the pandemic.

"Pre-Covid I had no patients anywhere in any hospital that waited more than 52 weeks for an elective procedure. As of the latest validated data we've got 6,500," he said.

There are also over 500 people waiting over two years, he said, with "particular challenges" at University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust.

He said progress is being made on the 52-week waits but "not as quickly as we would like".

Particular pressures, he said, are also being felt in cancer treatment, where there are issues in diagnostics and a shortage of staff.

He said meeting the pathway which should see people receive their first definitive treatment within 31 days of being identified with suspected cancer, with the entire plan completed within 62 days, is proving "very difficult".

"In certain cancer sites such as breast, colorectal and lower GI (gastrointestinal) that's resulting in longer waits than we would like," he added.

"A huge amount of resources is being thrown at addressing that but we're not where we want to be yet."