Oxfordshire hospitals in patient backlog 'crisis', warn MPs

The number of people on waiting lists at Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has almost doubled over the last couple of years.

The trust includes the John Radcliffe Hospital, Churchill Hospital and Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre, all in Oxford, and Horton General Hospital in Banbury.

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Labour MP Anneliese Dodds described the figures as “awful.”

The chief operating officer has apologised for the long waiting times and said the trust was working to reduce the backlog.

The three Oxford hospitals are in the constituency of Anneliese Dodds, Labour MP for Oxford East, who described the figures as “awful.”

She said: “These awful figures show the scale of the crisis in our local and national NHS - with the waiting list at 80,000 locally and 7.4million nationally.

“This is not just down to Covid as waiting lists were spiralling under the Conservatives before the pandemic, as well as since.

“We urgently need to stop people having to wait so long for treatment they desperately need.”

NHS England data published last week showed that 79,142 people were waiting for non-urgent elective operations or treatment at the trust’s hospitals in August.

This has risen from 76,690 patients in July, and from 45,000 in April 2021.

It mirrors a national trend with overall NHS waiting lists growing for the last decade, driven by funding cuts, staff shortages, industrial action, and the impact of the Covid pandemic.

Lib Dem MP Layla Moran said the latest figures were a “damning indictment” of the Conservative government

Layla Moran, Liberal Democrat MP for Oxford West and Abingdon, said the latest figures in Oxfordshire were a “damning indictment” of the Conservative government.

She said: “I sympathise wholeheartedly with the doctors and nurses who are doing their utmost to solve this NHS crisis, but they are being repeatedly failed by the Government…

“The public are tired of waiting and it seems this government have given up trying.”

In Oxfordshire, patients are not being treated at the recommended rate set out by the NHS, with many still waiting for treatment 18 weeks after referral.

The NHS states that more than 92 per cent of patients should leave the waiting list within 18 weeks, but the figure in Oxfordshire was just 61 per cent.

The worst affected services were urology (50 per cent), which deals with kidney and bladder issues, and trauma and orthopaedic (42 per cent), which covers conditions with bones, ligaments, and muscles.

The only treatment area that met NHS standards was elderly medicine services (92 per cent), which treats issues such as arthritis, Parkinson's disease and dementia.

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Tory MP Victoria Prentice said “good progress” had been made to cut waiting lists (Image: n/a)

Horton General Hospital in Banbury has embraced new technology to cut the waiting lists, claimed MP Victoria Prentice

Victoria Prentice, Tory MP for Banbury, said admissions had risen in the last year and that industrial action had impacted hospital capacity and services.

But she claimed “good progress” had been made to cut waiting lists and pointed to new technology introduced at Horton General Hospital.

She said: “Hospitals such as the Horton are embracing the latest technology, for example with the new Surgicube Ophthalmology Unit at the Ramsey Centre which is helping to bring down NHS waiting lists and improve patient care…

“From my regular conversations with representatives of the trust and recent visits to the Horton, I am assured that hospital staff remain committed to making progress on the things they know matter to patients.”

Both Ms Dodds and Ms Moran claimed their respective parties would bring down the national waiting lists, but Ms Prentice said the Government’s plan was “working.”

She said: “The Prime Minister remains rightly focused on cutting waiting lists, ensuring that people can get the care they need more quickly.

“While there have been challenges recently, good progress has been made so far this year in reducing waiting times for both elective and urgent and emergency care…

“Encouragingly, NHS England have reported this month that elective and cancer treatment activity was 10 per cent higher in August than the same month pre-COVID.

“The number of key diagnostic tests was also 16 per cent higher in comparison to August 2019 – the equivalent of an additional 10,000 tests every single day.

“Although our ambulance services faced challenges over the summer, September set records for both A&E attendances and Category 1 ambulance calls.

“Admissions were also up significantly compared with the same month last year but despite this, category 2 response times were 10 minutes better.

“We have faced obstacles along the way, but our plan does seem to be working.”

Sara Randall, the trust's chief operating officer, said: “Our staff are working hard to care for patients needing emergency, urgent, and cancer care while continuing to see and treat our long-waiting patients.

“We are sorry that waiting times are longer than we would like, and we would like to thank patients for their continued patience and understanding as we work to reduce waiting times. 

“We are working closely with all of our partners to maximise all available capacity for our patients.”