Patients’ lives are being put at risk because of “severe delays” in cardiac care, leading doctors have told theipaper 🔎 PatrickStrud reports:
, reveals that despite being an urgent case and being referred by his GP in early January, he was given an appointment for the ECG in early March.
“Homerton does not have a backlog for ECGs and our service has capacity next week for routine walk-ins from GPs referrals and through outpatients. There is also daily capacity for urgent patients requiring ECGs,” said the spokesperson. The latest official figures, from November, show 41 per cent of patients are waiting more than 6 weeks for this test and a further 21 per cent are waiting more than 13 weeks. The backlog is clear: around 88,000 people were waiting for this scan before Covid. Now it’s over 153,000 – nearly double.
Covid only exacerbated the shortfall in cardiology staff, the society said. “Many of our members were diverted throughout the pandemic, dealing with very sick patients and routine clinics were paused in most areas. The ramifications have been two-fold; more patients waiting longer for their echocardiogram and an already strained workforce pushed to the brink.
“Healthcare staff are doing all they can, but there aren’t enough of them to make a dent in the ever-growing backlog of care. We urgently need Government to address the shortages in specialist cardiac staff.” When the pandemic hit, doctors, nurses and a range of clinical and administrative staff were diverted away from other specialisms onto the biggest health crisis in living memory. This affected all areas of medicine, but there was a particular squeeze on cardiology — a field devoted to the most fundamental organ in the human body.
“With services now facing significant backlogs of care and increasing numbers of people waiting longer for routine procedures and treatment, these trends are likely to continue unless there is significant investment in the infrastructure and workforce needed to keep pace with the needs of patients.” With the heart being such a vital organ, he said, “any delay, at any stage in the process, is a genuine risk. I’m in no doubt that people’s health and potentially their lives are being adversely affected by these delays.”
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