One in every eight people in Norfolk now waiting for hospital treatment

As of December 2021, there were 111,209 people waiting for treatment across the region's three hospitals having been referred through other parts of the health system.

It is the highest figure since records began and a staggering 50pc increase on the near 75,000 that were waiting in March 2020, just before Covid arrived in the county.

The figures come after national NHS waiting lists passed six million for the first time - with health secretary Sajid Javid warning they will continue to grow for the next two years.

In Norfolk, the majority of these were referred to the region's largest hospital for care, the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital (NNUH).

In December, the NNUH's waiting list swelled to 75,546 people waiting treatment.

The hospital also had 12,037 patients that have been waiting for longer than a year after their referral and almost 1,500 who have faced waits of more than two years.

Ambulances queuing outside the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital on Tuesday October 12 2021. (Image: Archant)

At the James Paget University Hospital in Gorelston, 16,570 patients are waiting for treatment - 945 of whom have been for longer than a year.

And the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in King's Lynn has a waiting list of 19,093, a record high for the hospital, 818 waiting longer than a year.

The stark new figures further emphasise the impact the pandemic has had on the health system across the country, with rising case numbers throughout December and January, owing to the Omicron variant, leading to a critical incident being declared across the region.

And with this incident now de-escalated and the peak of the variant passed, the health system is now left to assess the after-effects of the wave.

A spokesperson for the NHS in Norfolk and Waveney said: “Nationally, the plan to address waiting lists for planned and elective care procedures has been announced and sets out how the NHS will tackle the Covid backlog in the months and years to come.

"This will involve increasing health service capacity, prioritising diagnosis and treatment, transforming how elective care is provided and providing more information and support to patients.

“Our clinical teams in Norfolk and Waveney continue to work hard to diagnose and treat patients as quickly as possible and are prioritising cancer, most urgent and longest waiting patients.

"Despite these huge collective efforts by health and care staff across the system, dealing with the pandemic and its effects has inevitably had an impact on health and care services, including the volume of planned care the NHS has been able to provide. Unfortunately, this means that patients are having to wait longer to receive care than we would normally like.

“The pandemic has shone a light on the fact that health and care staff can deliver transformational change, at pace, for patients when they need it most.

“We will continue to do all we can as a health and care system to address and tackle waiting lists, in line with other health and care systems across the country. The NHS in Norfolk and Waveney is committed to tackling the longest waits, whilst ensuring those in the greatest clinical need get the treatment they need, as quick as possible.”

'Money can buy me health'

A 59-year-old man resorted to taking out a £16,500 loan to cover private health care treatment after reaching the end of his tether while in the patient backlog.

The Eaton man was placed on the waiting list for a hip operation in October 2019 as an urgent referral.

In February 2021 he took out a loan to have the surgery done privately but intentionally left himself on the list to see how long it would take for him to be offered it on the NHS.

In November that year he received a call to update his case, informing him he had still not made it to the top of the list.

He said: "They say money can't buy you health, but I can assure you it can. I kept myself on the list after I had my operation privately because I was fascinated to know how long it would have taken and I was given an estimate of January 2022.

"The wait is agony - the misery is uncalculatable."

Analysis

The way the Covid pandemic has affected our lives is undeniable and wide-spanning.

Its implications on our hospitals were always going to be split into short and long term and here we are seeing probably the most devastating of its long term effects.

However, this is not a problem that can be exclusively blamed on the pandemic, regardless of how undeniable its impact is.

We see from these figures that even before Covid hit there were tens of thousands of people creating a backlog of patients.

This has to be attributed to a longstanding failure of governments to aptly fund the NHS, an institution that for all intents and purposes should be the envy of the world.

The NHS was founded on the notion of being free and accessible to all - but while the wealthy are able to fast-track their care privately, not all can afford this luxury.

Hospitals will need increasing creativity to address this growing problem - but this can not happen unless they are properly invested in. Health needs to be made a priority in budgets for generations to come.