>From http://www.thisislondon.com/dynamic/news.html

NHS figures show waits shambles

by Jo Revill Health Correspondent
The truth about the Government's waiting list drive finally emerged today.
While surgeons have been working hard to cut the number of people needing
operations, they have been too busy to cope with the numbers waiting for
their first appointment.
This means that while figures today show a dramatic fall in patients queuing
for hospital treatment, there is an equally large rise in the wait to see a
consultant in outpatients' clinics.
Announcing the figures, Health Secretary Frank Dobson said the NHS is
"delivering the goods" more successfully now than at any point since the
Second World War, because there are 120,000 fewer patients waiting for
in-patient care since April.
For the sixth month in succession, the queue for a hospital operation has
fallen, thanks to an investment of some £480 million as the Government wages
war on the burgeoning waits for treatment.
There are now 1,193,483 people in England on the list. The number waiting
more than a year has fallen by 16 per cent since June. However, another set
of NHS statistics shows a 15.6 per cent increase over the same period in
those waiting to see the specialist in the outpatient clinic.
Under Government rules, people should not wait more than six months for a
consultant appointment after a letter of referral from their GP.
Across London and the South-East, more than 30,000 people have been queuing
longer than that for their first appointment, and a further 91,000 have been
waiting between 13 and 25 weeks.
This has happened at the same time that 38,000 people in the region have
dropped off the waiting list for their operation.
Many experts believe that the rise in outpatient waits is a natural
consequence of investing so much money and time in clearing the lists for
surgery.
If surgeons spend their days in theatre, it means they are less available to
see patients in clinics, and the system is put under pressure.
There is also the temptation to delay seeing patients because it means fewer
going on the hospital waiting list.
Claire Rayner, head of the Patient's Association, said: "I have said from
the beginning that I don't give a damn about the length of the waiting list.
"What I do care about and what patients care about, is the length of waiting
time."
Patients needing to see a specialist in orthopaedics, ophthalmology and ear,
nose and throat surgery are facing particularly long waits.
Some of the London hospitals are finding it hard to recruit enough nursing
staff to carry out the waiting list work, with many vacancies for theatre
nurses.
Mr Dobson has to cut another 100,000 off the hospital waiting list in order
to meet the pledge he made at the General Election to reduce the figures to
below those they inherited from the Conservatives.

Locally I am booking OPA s for Orthopaedics for August 2000........  The
joke, which has now worn thin, is that the Trust was testing for Y2K.  :(
Mark

Dr G Mark Trowell
Highbridge Medical Centre
Pepperall Road
Highbridge
Somerset
TA9 3YA

01278 783220
01278 785486 (Fax)

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