WAITING lists at Barnsley Hospital are continuing to drop - but there’s still more than 22,000 people waiting for an operation.
NHS England figures show 22,009 patients were waiting for non-urgent elective operations or treatment at Barnsley Hospital at the end of May - down slightly from 22,137 in April, and 22,074 in May 2023.
Of those, 154 had been waiting for longer than a year.
The median waiting time from referral at an NHS trust to treatment at Barnsley Hospital was ten weeks at the end of May - the same as in April.
New health secretary Wes Streeting has said the NHS has been ‘wrecked’.
He added: “It’s clear to anyone who works in or uses the NHS that it is broken.
“Unlike the last government, we are not looking for excuses.
“I am certainly not going to blame NHS staff, who bust a gut for their patients.
“This government is going to be honest about the challenges facing us, and serious about solving them.”
Separate figures show 1.7m patients in England were waiting for a key diagnostic test in May - a rise on 1.6m in April.
At Barnsley Hospital, 3,633 patients were waiting for one of 11 standard tests, such as an MRI scan, non-obstetric ultrasound or gastroscopy at this time.
Of them, 83 had been waiting for at least six weeks.
Other figures show cancer patients at Barnsley Hospital are not being seen quickly enough.
The NHS states 85 per cent of cancer patients with an urgent referral should start treatment within 62 days.
But NHS England data shows just 75 per cent of cancer patients urgently referred to Barnsley Hospital in May began treatment within two months of their referral.
That was up from 69 per cent in April, but down from 77 per cent in May 2023.
Professor Sir Stephen Powis, NHS national medical director, said: “Frontline teams are continuing to work exceptionally hard under significant pressure to provide the best care they can for patients, but everyone recognises that access and waiting times are currently far from what the public have a right to expect.
“Despite the challenges, it is vital that people come forward when they have health concerns - a huge amount of work is going on to diagnose more cancers at an earlier stage, so if you do have worrying symptoms, it’s important to see your GP as soon as possible.
“Everyone working in the health service is committed to working with the government, and with patients and the public, to tackle these challenges, to improve performance and quality in core services, and in the longer term to build an NHS fit for the future.”
A Barnsley Hospital spokesperson said: “The Community Diagnostic Centre at the Glass Works in Barnsley and the recently opened Mexborough Elective Orthopaedic Centre of Excellence are helping to increase capacity and are providing an opportunity to redesign how services are delivered.
“We recognise there is still progress to be made and our teams continue to work hard to restore planned activity and improve productivity.
“We are pleased that we have managed to stabilise the waiting list and continue to focus on how we reduce the numbers of people waiting too long for treatment.”
