Phone consultations in first wave added to waiting lists
NON-EMERGENCY operations were disrupted for about 13 weeks during 2020, but capacity was restored by the end of September, the Medical Specialist Group has said in its report on the last year.
But waiting lists, particularly for orthopaedic surgery, grew and the report said it was impossible to predict when numbers will revert back to pre-pandemic levels.
While at the end of 2019 there were 390 patients on the orthopaedic in-patient waiting list, at the end of 2020 it was 596.
The MSG report said that although surgery was on hold during the first wave, many clinics were held via telephone and that led to more patients being added to the waiting list at a time when there was no in-patient activity.
In a separate report on key performance indicators, Health & Social Care medical director Dr Peter Rabey said the response to the virus ‘had a profound impact on the delivery of health and care service, with all aspects of operations impacted to a greater or lesser extent’.
Staff had worked exceptionally hard to reduce backlogs, he said, and to find other ways of delivering essential services.
‘We should be proud of our performance in 2020,’ said Dr Rabey.
The MSG said: ‘We understand the distress and frustration waiting for an operation can undoubtedly cause patients and we would like to reassure them that we will continue to do all we can to find alternative solutions to improve the orthopaedic waiting list.
‘We would like to thank patients for their understanding and patience during these unprecedented and challenging times.’
The orthopaedic waiting list was established in 2019 when 104 patients underwent surgery off-island at selected centres in Jersey and the UK.
Only 22 went down this route in 2020, said the report, ‘as almost all of those on the waiting list that were suitable had already received treatment’.
Figures released by the group showed that last year there were 48,143 outpatients seen, of which 80% were contract patients (i.e. seen under the MSG’s agreement with the States).
There were 12,694 in-patients cared for by MSG consultants at the PEH, of which just over 23% were emergencies, the remainder being elective. Again, nearly 80% were under contract.
A total of 6,247 operations were carried out, the vast majority of which (5,692 or 91.1%) were elective, while 555 were emergencies. Of these, just over a quarter (26.7%) were private, 72.4% were elective and 0.9% were non-contract.
