Green shoots of elective recovery?

John Skinner

As we approach the middle of 2022, we are starting to see some green shoots of elective recovery after the pandemic.

For the first time in two years, many Trusts are starting to see short runs of time where no new cases of COVID are reported in staff. For so long, recovery has been frustrated by the triad of sickness, leave and patient isolation requirements with an already depleted workforce. We know all too well that hospitals have got used to diverting beds, wards, anaesthetic teams and nurses away from treating elective orthopaedic patients and latterly from trauma services too. We must continue to make our patients’ voice and plight impossible to ignore and I will continue to highlight the inequity of this at the highest levels.

In the last waiting list figures released on 12th May, we saw that the number of patients waiting more than 104 weeks had reduced by 26% after a focused national drive. It was also encouraging to see that the total number of admitted procedures in T&O was up by 14% on the last month. This is essential for our patients and we wait to see if it is sustained.

I have travelled to Belfast with Tim Briggs, to meet with the Government, the Health Service leads and a really dynamic and frustrated group of surgical colleagues who are almost at a standstill for elective surgery. The reasons are complicated by political stasis but are a severe example of diverting the orthopaedic resource as above. It just shows what happens if we continue to de-prioritise elective surgery and surprising how quickly it reaches the end game. We have proposed some solutions and I really hope that for the benefit of patients and surgeons, they can be adopted quickly. I have also been in correspondence with the Welsh and Scottish Governments on exactly the same issues.

I was interviewed on the BBC World at One programme to discuss Liam Gallagher’s widely reported claims in the Press that he would rather be in a wheelchair that have his ‘bashed up hips’ replaced. This gave an opportunity to highlight the misery of arthritis pain and the skills of surgeons to relieve it with effective surgery. The Sun reported his change of heart as Liam’s “UP FOR HIP OP” after he has played his sold out Knebworth concerts this summer.

We also marked our concern with the Times and other papers for reporting “Stop taking pain killers for arthritis NHS patients told.” This may have validity in the early stages which is what NICE said but they did not consider waiting list patients. While waiting for surgery, these patients are in a lot of pain and painkillers remain an important part of making life bearable.

As summer begins many colleagues will be planning holidays and I hope you all manage to get some well-earned rest and time together with family or friends.