Whittington staff celebrate NHS waiting list success with over 5,000 extra people treated

Whittington Health NHS Trust announced today it had now met the national target for 65% of patients to start treatment within 18 weeks of a referral

A “herculean effort” has seen a North London hospital treat and remove 5,500 patients from its waiting list since the start of the year – helping it meet a key NHS target.

Whittington Hospital in Archway, run by Whittington Health NHS Trust, has recently undertaken a series of what it describes as “sprints” where additional clinics have taken place in evenings and weekends across February and March. There have been additional outpatient appointments, theatre lists and neurodevelopmental assessments for children and young people.

The effort appears to have paid off, as the trust announced today (Monday 30th) that it was now meeting the NHS target for at least 65% of patients who require planned care to receive treatment within 18 weeks of as referral, having now almost reached 70%.

The number of patients waiting over 52 weeks for planned care dropped from over 650 in December to fewer than 90 now. In children’s services, the overall waiting time for assessments has reduced by three months; in adult services over 600 have come off waiting lists for vascular surgery appointments, 800 people for neurology, and over 1,000 people fewer people now sit on waiting lists for general surgery and dermatology.

Whittington Health NHS Trust’s chief operating officer Chinyama Okunuga praised the teams who made this additional care possible. She said: “In December only around half of our patients were getting the care they needed within 18 weeks, today that number is closer to three-quarters.

“Patients are at the heart of everything we do at Whittington Health so it wasn’t hard to persuade people to step up to meet this challenge, but I cannot praise my colleagues highly enough – from the booking teams, housekeepers and administrators behind the scenes to our porters, reception and clinical staff that patients see, everyone stepped up and said ‘let’s do this’.”

Selina Douglas, chief executive of Whittington Health NHS Trust, said: “Behind all of these figures are real people who are waiting for care they need, so it is vital that we do everything we can to treat them as quickly and safely as possible.

“If I am honest, when we told our colleagues at NHS England that we would get more than 5,000 extra patients treated by the end of the financial year, I don’t think they believed us – it just goes to show you should never underestimate Whittington Health!”

Local news needs your support

We are proud that we were at the forefront of reporting on the recent local elections. We can’t do this without the support of our readers.

Independent news outlets like ours – reporting for the community without rich backers – are under threat of closure, turning British towns into news deserts.

If our coverage has helped you understand our community a little bit better, please consider supporting us with a monthly, yearly or one-off donation.