Delays in surgery leaves NHS patients in ‘pain and discomfort’

The Royal College of Surgeons have said that thousands of NHS patients in England have been left in ‘pain and discomfort’ due to operations being postponed, with patients waiting for knee and hip surgery being the worst affected.

Professor Derek Alderson, president of the Royal College of Surgeons, said that the operation delays were a “necessary evil” given the current pressures facing Accident & Emergency departments, adding, however, that “It also inevitably prevented many patients who are in discomfort or pain from having an operation when they needed it, potentially causing their condition to deteriorate.”

As well as knee and hip patients, those waiting for brain surgery for benign tumours and treatment for inflammatory bowel disease and Crohn’s disease had also been affected.

Information published recently by NHS England showed that operations carried out in December and January numbered 544,000, down from 585,500 for the same period 12 months previously. This followed an order by NHS bosses for hospitals to delay routine treatments in order to free up beds over the winter period.

Dr Chaand Nagpaul, leader of the British Medical Association, warned that hospitals were still incredibly busy and the pressures were “far from over”, adding that “Patients are continuing to be routinely failed”.

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Posted by Tony May, Partner/head of Clinical Negligence Department, Chadwick Lawrence LLP (tonymay@chadlaw.co.uk ), medical negligence lawyers and clinical negligence solicitors in Huddersfield, Leeds, Wakefield and Halifax, West Yorkshire.

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