University Hospitals Birmingham’s waiting list has revealed thousands are waiting for treatment

Thousands of Brummies are facing an agonizing wait for treatment, latest figures for University Hospitals Birmingham Trust show. The trust has a number of major hospitals under its care, including the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Heartlands Hospital and Solihull Hospital.

We looked at data on growing waiting lists and A&E delays at every trust in England, and for UHB, waiting list figures from 2011 to 2024 show an increase from 21,000 to around 127,000. University Hospitals Birmingham Trust told us they are making “good progress” in reducing their waiting lists.

It is important to note, however, that 2018 saw a merger of the previous organisations, University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust and Heart of England NHS Trust, to make it one of the largest Trusts in the UK. However, the 2018 waiting list has grown despite the merger.

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Apart from the impact that Covid had on services, the 2018 merger was one of the biggest drivers of the increase in waiting lists, the data suggests. We have asked UHB to provide historical data to show how many patients joined the trust following the 2018 merger and we will bring you those numbers when we receive them.

However, merger aside, there is still huge progress to be made, as the UHB figures show. To give an idea of ​​pre-merger waiting list numbers, in April 2011 the waiting list at UHB was 21,281. Throughout 2011, the number of patients rose steadily to 25,340 by April 2012. From 2012 to 2017, the number of people on UHB’s waiting lists continued to rise to 33,575 by April 2018 .

In May 2018 waiting lists were 33,435 and then rose to 86,178 by June 2018, which will have been partly due to the trust merger. However, after that, waiting lists remained constant at eighty thousand until September 2019. By April 2024, the waiting list was 127,856.

Looking back to 2011 nationally, there were 2.51 million people on waiting lists in April 2011, the earliest we have reliable figures for and a year into a Conservative-led coalition government. Following the pandemic, they rose much more sharply to current levels.

A spokesperson for University Hospitals Birmingham told BirminghamLive: “We are making good progress in reducing our waiting lists as a result of the huge impact on services during the COVID-19 pandemic. This is made possible by the tremendous determination, skill and commitment of our incredible people who have worked tirelessly to make improvements; however, we know there is more to do for local people who are waiting too long for the right care.

“We continue our efforts to drive progress, supported by initiatives such as our new 6-theatre elective center due to open later this year at Solihull Hospital.”

The national picture is not encouraging either, with a total of 7.57 million people on NHS waiting lists in England in April 2024, up from 7.54 million in March.

Responding to the national waiting list figures, for trusts across the country, an NHS spokesman spoke of a “recovery plan” in place. An NHS spokesman explained: “As the latest figures show, demand for NHS services across the country remains high – May was a record month for A&E services, with the highest number of attendances to A&E and the busiest may for the most urgent ambulance call. -exits, while staff delivered a record number of elective appointments for the month of April.

“The NHS continues to focus on reducing long waiting times for routine care and reducing the time patients spend in A&E. Thanks to the dedication of staff and a range of measures in the UEC recovery plan to improve patient care – including higher utilisation. of emergency care on the same day and meeting our target of providing 5,000 additional core hospital beds – 20% more patients were seen in A&E within four hours in May compared to the same month last year.