Wiltshire patients face longer wait for surgery (From Wiltshire Times)

Wiltshire patients face longer wait for surgery

3:00pm Sunday 2nd January 2011 in Latest News By Jill Crooks

People waiting for routine operations will wait longer as NHS Wiltshire tightens the purse strings.

The Primary Care Trust has written to GPs telling them that new patients coming on to the waiting list will not meet its 13-week target but instead will be treated within 18 weeks from referral, which is the national target.

Jeff James, chief executive of NHS Wiltshire, said the action had been taken to stop the PCT overspending this financial year and also to ensure there was capacity at hospitals for emergency operations that arise during the winter.

He said the average waiting time for routine operations will be extended by three to four weeks.

He said: “We are not saying there’s a ban. If patients need treatment and need it urgently they are to be referred to hospital.

“Waiting lists are comparatively short. You could say we have been a victim of our own success, we have shortened waiting times significantly for patients in Wiltshire in the last two years.

“We have to make sure we don’t overspend and we have to have a fine balance between elective (planned) operations and emergency work.”

Health and social care watchdog the Wiltshire Involvement Network is concerned at the lengthening of waiting lists.

Vice-chairman Phil Matthews said: “What you have got to remember is if people that have been waiting for some time for a hip or knee replacement or cataract operation it’s going to cause more anguish to patients.

“This is about money and I think that’s the way it’s going in the NHS.

“The Government are saying they are not cutting the funding to the NHS, yet they expect the NHS to make billions of pounds of savings, that would be a cut somewhere.”