THE amount of patients in Worcestershire who have been waiting longer than 18 weeks for an operation currently stands at 1,839 – despite hospital bosses having pledged to clear the backlog by September.

Figures showing the amount of patients waiting longer than the NHS-mandated 18-week period had steadily increased over the past year were revealed at a meeting of Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust – which runs Worcestershire Royal Hospital, Kidderminster Hospital and Redditch’s Alexandra Hospital – on Wednesday, October 29.

Typically the three hospitals are extremely busy during the winter, leading to some elective operations being cancelled due to unavailability of beds and staff being used to treat A&E patients, but the summer months are generally quieter allowing for any backlog to be cleared.

But this year has been unusual, with demand on hospital services increasing almost every month throughout the year.

Earlier in the year trust bosses pledged to clear the backlog by September in preparation for the winter, but the continued high demand has meant this has not been possible.

Speaking this week the trust’s chief operating officer Stewart Messer said the organisation was putting measures in place to cope better with the expected increase in demand over the winter, with a specific view to making sure patients could be discharged as quickly as possible.

“This is challenging and very complex which is why I can’t give you a definite answer about the time scales but it’s very different this winter than previous winters,” he said.

“We are this much better than we have in the past.

“Historically patients would spend a disproportionate amount of time in hospital waiting for some kind of assessment while it’s much better to get them back into their own homes.

“Of course we would wish that to take place tomorrow but it’s going to take a bit longer than that.”

He added the organisation was working with Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust – which runs community care in the county – to make sure beds are available for patients who are not well enough to be sent home but do not need to remain in an acute hospital.

“This is not a phenomenon unique to Worcestershire,” he said.

“The whole of the country is struggling with this.”

But there was a glimpse of in the figures, which showed the trust had met its target of treating at least 95 per cent of patients visiting A&E within four hours in September, which it had previously only achieved in four of the previous 12 months.