Covid causes operation delays for thousands in North East and Cumbria

Hospitals are trying to work their way through backlogs created over the last 15 months

More than 14,000 patients in the North East of England and Cumbria are waiting longer than a year for non-emergency operations as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

In February 2020, that figure was just 66, according to official NHS figures.

And 64,727 people have waited longer than the official target of 18 weeks, more than double the pre-pandemic figure of 31,478.

The government said it was spending an extra £1bn nationally tackling delays.

Among those to have been waiting more than one year for treatment is retired consultant anaesthetist Shoba Srivastava MBE, aged 87, of South Shields.

Dr Srivastava, who has severe arthritis, is now due to have an operation on 1 July after previously having her treatment cancelled.

"It is so painful," she said. "Finally now I have a date. We need more doctors, more nurses, more healthcare workers."

Dr Shoba Srivastava MBE is now due to undergo surgery later this week

The early stages of the pandemic also saw procedures such as cataract operations cancelled.

Jean-Pierre Danjoux, clinical director at Sunderland Eye Infirmary, said: "Certainly last year in the initial lockdown, where all non-urgent clinical activities essentially stopped for three months, that created a backlog of patients waiting to be seen both for surgery and in the outpatient department."

The total number of people waiting for hospital treatment in the North East and Cumbria in April this year was 237,496, up almost 6,000 since February 2020.

Northumbria Healthcare NHS Trust, which covers North Tyneside and Northumberland, said its waiting times are now coming down in part because of new ways of doing things, such as concentrating coronavirus patients in one of its hospitals so others can ramp up elective cases.

It is also cutting down on large numbers of trips to hospital through remote appointments.

Dr Eliot Sykes, a consultant, said: "We now see approximately 35% of our patients virtually. That's about 13,000 patients a month. It's a massive transformation."

Jean-Pierre Danjoux said many people may still be anxious about visiting hospitals

Mr Danjoux, though, believes the real number of people needing treatment could be higher than the figures show.

"While referral numbers have picked up, they're still below what we used to see coming from GPs," he said.

"That does raise concerns as to how many patients are there waiting and still don't perhaps feel safe enough to want to access services."

The government said it is spending £1bn piloting new ways of tackling waiting lists, including greater use of "pop-up" clinics.

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said the NHS had faced "significant challenges over the past year" and that "staff have ensured routine operations have rebounded quickly, with 1.1 million people beginning elective treatment in April alone".