Key numbers for Worksop's hospital trust in September

The King's Fund, a healthcare think tank, said NHS services are already in crisis and warned new Prime Minister Rishi Sunak the situation is likely to worsen if budgets are cut.

NHS England figures show 50,983 patients were waiting for non-urgent elective operations or treatment at DBTH – which runs Worksop’s Bassetlaw Hospital, as well as Doncaster Royal Infirmary and Mexborough’s Montagu Hospital – at the end of September, up slightly from 50,601 in August, and 43,125 in September 2021.

Of those, 1,419, 3 per cent, had been waiting for longer than a year.

The median waiting time from referral at an NHS Trust to treatment at DBTH was 13 weeks at the end of September, up from 12 weeks in August.

Nationally, 7.1 million people were waiting to start treatment at the end of September – a new record.

Siva Anandaciva, chief analyst at the King’s Fund, said the Government's fiscal statement, due on November 17, will have a “profound impact on the quality and accessibility of health and care services”.

He said: “If NHS budgets keep being eroded by inflation, it is hard to see how ambitious government targets to reduce hospital waiting lists can possibly be achieved.

“History has shown us that attempts to protect core NHS budgets at the expense of wider spending on social care, illness prevention and capital investment are short-sighted and can lead to greater pressure on services further down the line”

Separate figures show 1.6 million patients in England were waiting for a key diagnostic test in September – a rise on 1.5m in August.

At DBTH, 16,870 patients were waiting for one of 13 standard tests, such as an MRI scan, non-obstetric ultrasound or gastroscopy at this time.

Of them, 7,918, 47 per cent, had been waiting for at least six weeks.

Dr Tim Cooksley, president of the Society for Acute Medicine, said the figures show “standards are at an unacceptably poor level” that will deteriorate during the winter and that pressure to deliver care is at an unsustainable level.

Other figures from NHS England show that of 92 patients urgently referred by their GP who were treated at DBTH in September, 55 were receiving cancer treatment within two months of their referral.

A month previously – when 90 patients were referred – 67 were treated within 62 days.

In September 2021, 72 patients were treated within this period, out of 88 that were referred.

Prof Sir Stephen Powis, NHS medical director, Powis said: "There is no doubt October has been a challenging month for staff, who are now facing a tripledemic of Covid, flu and record pressure on emergency services with more people attending A&E or requiring the most urgent ambulance callout than any other October.

He said pressure on emergency services remains high due to a shortage of hospital beds, but “staff have kept their foot on the accelerator to get the backlog down”.

“We have always said the overall waiting list would rise as more patients come forward, and, with pressures on staff set to increase over the winter months, the NHS has a plan – including a new falls service, 24/7 war rooms, and extra beds and call handlers,” he said.

More patients visited accident and emergency at Bassetlaw Hospital and DRI last month, but attendances were lower than over the same period last year, figures reveal.

NHS England figures show 16,223 patients visited casualty at DBTH in October, up 4 per cent on the 15,648 visits recorded during September, but 2 per cent lower than the 16,535 patients seen in October 2021.

The figures show attendances were above the levels seen two years ago – in October 2020, there were 13,015 visits to DBTH A&E departments.

Across England, A&E departments received 2.2m visits last month, up 9 per cent compared with September, and a similar number as were seen during October 2021.

At Doncaster and Bassetlaw Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in October:

68 per cent of arrivals were seen within four hours, against an NHS target of 95 per cent;

1,710 patients waited longer than four hours for treatment following a decision to admit – 11 per cent of patients;

Of those, 369 were delayed by more than 12 hours,

Separate NHS Digital data reveals that in September, the median time to treatment was 74 minutes and about 6 per cent of patients left before being treated