Health and care services are facing some of their biggest challenges in living memory and the on-going COVID-19 pandemic has played a big part in that.
Many services were postponed to ensure sufficient capacity was available in our hospitals to treat patients with COVID-19 and to keep people safe during the pandemic. This meant that waiting lists grew. On this page you can read more about how the NHS is working to make sure people are able to receive care and treatment as soon as possible.
Hospital services
Early in 2022, NHS England and NHS Improvement published a national delivery plan, setting out challenging targets relating to planned care, diagnostic tests and cancer care alongside significant additional investment to increase capacity and modernise digital technology to reduce waiting times.
Locally, Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust continues to make best use of its two main hospital sites, as well as the network of community hospitals. The local NHS has introduced a range of other measures to enable their teams to see as many patients as possible and support the recovery.
This includes running extra outpatient clinics and theatre lists at the weekends and into the evening, as well as using facilities in the independent sector for the treatment of NHS patients, some of whom have been waiting the longest.
Expansion of diagnostic services (tests, checks and scans to help diagnose health conditions) is continuing, including through the development of community based diagnostic services.
Additional tests currently include CT, MRI, Xray and Ultrasound, and are being delivered by local hospital and independent sector partners. There are also tests being provided in primary care, including blood tests as well as tests for respiratory conditions such as asthma.
Positively, activity levels are getting back to where they were in the pre-pandemic period.
Gloucestershire is now doing around 95% of the operations and over 100% of the diagnostic procedures, such as CT scans and MRIs, compared to pre-pandemic levels.
Outpatient recovery has also been excellent, and Gloucestershire is now providing over 100% of activity compared to before the pandemic. Where appropriate to the individual’s needs, telephone and video conferencing continues to offer an alternative to ‘in-person’ face to face outpatient appointments and the need to travel to hospital appointments.
Throughout the pandemic, Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust continued to provide life-saving treatments and surgery such as cancer care which has meant that going into this recovery phase the NHS locally is in a stronger position.
There has also been continued focus on achieving the national cancer standards. For example, the local NHS was one of the best performers in the country in seeing and treating patients referred by their GP during 2021/2022.
The Hospitals Trust is also one of a small number of Trusts consistently meeting the recently introduced Faster Diagnosis Standard (FDS) that ensures patients with suspected cancer have their diagnosis confirmed or ruled out within 28 days of being referred urgently by their GP.
For patients who are diagnosed with cancer, it means their treatment can start as soon as possible and for those who are not, they can have their minds put at rest more quickly.
However, the local NHS acknowledges the size of the challenge and that many patients are still waiting longer than they would like due to the backlog which built up during the first phases of the response to the pandemic.
The NHS has established dedicated teams to ensure that regular communication with anyone waiting for care is at the heart of the approach to recovery. This includes a dedicated information hub at Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. Many patients on a waiting list at Gloucestershire Royal or Cheltenham General Hospitals are being contacted via text message or postal letter as part of their work to reduce the delays caused by the pandemic.
The NHS has recently launched the My Planned Care patient digital platform which gives you direct access to the latest average wait time information for NHS Trusts in England, as well as helpful advice and support whilst you wait.
Read more about how Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is supporting patients who are waiting for care here.
Community and mental health services
Throughout the pandemic, Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust (GHC) directed resources into urgent and critical care, prioritising patients with the most severe needs.
Since summer 2021, GHC have been focusing on recovery. Some services quickly returned to pre-pandemic performance with little interruption. But for others, the pace of recovery has been much steadier with some services looking at how they can work differently and more effectively in future.
Lessons learnt from the pandemic are informing how services are being developed, including how resources are maximised to respond efficiently and effectively to new demands.
A significant development has been the use of technology, with many services offering face to face, video or telephone consultations. This has improved access to services as well as offering more patient choice.
Alongside this, and in line with COVID-19 regulations, group treatment sessions have now resumed and clinic capacity continues to increase across all GHC community services.
Many services continue to experience an increase in demand and an increase in the severity of illness they are responding to, which is impacting upon the number of people waiting and the length of their wait. The Eating Disorders Service is recognised as one a service that needs to adapt and develop to be able to meet the increasing demand for support.
The Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service is also challenged by rising demand and more complex needs following COVID-19. Waiting list safety initiatives, including welfare calls, robust screening and triage practices and a duty telephone line means that the needs of young people are well understood and waiting times are based on robust risk assessment, but there are also mechanisms in place to escalate referrals should needs change.
GP services
GP surgery teams are working longer and harder than ever before to provide the best care for you.
Demand for appointments is extremely high and practices have seen an increase in contacts to surgeries of nearly 20% since 2019.
All patients who contact their surgery, either on-line or by phone, are assessed to decide whether they need to be seen in person, via a phone or video consultation or if they would benefit from a visit to a community pharmacy. Those patients with urgent clinical needs are seen on the same day or the next day.
Surgeries have adapted the way consultations can be offered to help them continue to provide high standards of care, and patients can now speak to the surgery team by telephone, video and via a face-to-face appointment when this is appropriate.
The benefits of this can include shorter waiting times for appointments, reduced risk of delaying serious diagnoses such as cancer as well as protection from sharing waiting room environments with others who may be unwell.
Face to face (in person) consultations with clinicians in the practice team are available to those who need them. They currently account for 69% of appointments in Gloucestershire, compared to around 70% before the pandemic.
General practice in Gloucestershire also has a very strong track record in embracing new ways of working, including the development of practice teams.
We now have clinical pharmacists, physiotherapists, mental health professionals, paramedics and other professionals working within or alongside practice teams – making a big contribution and supporting us to meet the individual needs of patients.
Find out more about how we are improving health and care services in Gloucestershire today, including making the best use of our resources and new technology to recover from the pandemic in the health priorities section of our site.