LONG WAITS A THING OF THE PAST

Jul 4 2008 by Karen Wilson, The Journal

DRAMATIC improvements have been made in recent years to cut waiting lists and reduce waiting times.

In years gone by, patients could wait over a year to receive their treatment and waiting times were measured in months rather than days or weeks.

Today, the patient experience has improved dramatically with most orthopaedic patients seen within eight weeks.

Northumbria Healthcare has worked hard to reduce the length of time their patients wait for treatment. Most patients now receive their treatment within 18 weeks of being referred by their GP, which means any tests needed to diagnose the problem would have already been carried out.

Now the maximum waiting times are:

For general surgery (eg. gallbladder, hernia etc), urology, plastic surgery, general medicine, cardiology, gynaecology and ear, nose and throat – seven weeks.

For trauma and orthopaedics – five weeks.

For oral surgery – 13 weeks.