Nine hospital trusts responsible for half of patients waiting the longest

Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. This can be down to a variety of reasons, including high bed occupancy due to high demand for urgent and emergency care, or a lack of community or social care to help discharge patients more quickly Rory Deighton, NHS Confederation University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust was responsible for around one in five of the total waiting for at least a year and a half for pre-planned hospital treatment. The nine NHS trusts with the largest number of people waiting for at least a year and a half for pre-planned care, as of the end of September, are: – University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust – 579 patients, or 21.4% of the total – Norfolk & Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust – 168 patients, 6.2% of the total – Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust – 162 patients, 6.0% of the total – Milton Keynes University Hospital – 113 patients, 4.2% of the total – Royal Free NHS Foundation Trust – 73 patients, 2.7% of the total – Barts Health NHS Trust – 72 patients, 2.7% of the total – Guy’s & St Thomas’ – 70 patients, 2.6% of the total – King’s College Hospital – 65 patients, 2.4% of the total – Lewisham & Greenwich NHS Trust – 57 patients, 2.1% of the total All nine of these trusts are in southern or eastern England. The ongoing focus of our staff, and our system partners, is clear, and we will keep working at this pace to help make sure people receive safe, high-quality care as soon as is possible University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust “Our dedicated staff have delivered additional clinics, making the most use of Community Diagnostic Centres, and have improved processes, resulting in our waiting lists falling faster than nearly any other trust in the country. “The ongoing focus of our staff, and our system partners, is clear, and we will keep working at this pace to help make sure people receive safe, high-quality care as soon as is possible.” Chris Cobb, chief operating officer at Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals, said: “It is a priority of ours to accelerate our elective recovery to ensure patients can access care when they need it, which includes a programme of work to increase elective and day case activity and to also increase the number of new out-patient appointments as well as the proportion of patient-initiated follow-ups.