Leicester hospitals leading the way as the longest care waits are 'dramatically' slashed

The new planned care centre at the General Hospital

Leicester hospitals are leading the way after dramatically slashing the length of time patients are waiting for treatment. Data released by NHS England shows a 77 per cent reduction in the number of people waiting more than a year for treatment at hospitals run by the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust (UHL).

This is the biggest drop of any hospital trust in the country. Data shows there were 109,256 people waiting for care at city hospitals in January, of which 4,285 had been waiting more than a year. Some 48,591 were still waiting more than the 18 week target and the hospital trust acknowledged there is still work to do.

UHL said the pandemic had left it with a huge backlog of people waiting for elective – non-emergency – care which it had been working hard to bring down. UHL told LeicestershireLive it treated almost 19,000 in December 2023, the third highest amount of any English trust and more than any other trust in the Midlands.

Leicester hospitals also managed to have the largest reduction in people waiting 65 weeks or more, and the second largest overall reduction in the number of people on the waiting list for treatment. UHL has celebrated the news, with chief operating officer Jon Melbourne praising the hard work of staff to improve care for patients.

He said: “I want to thank our colleagues for their dedication and hard work to see and treat patients across the whole Trust. During 2023 we are proud to have dramatically reduced the number of people waiting more than 52 weeks for their treatment. This is good news for those patients and for the whole health system.

“While we are delighted with these results, I recognise that we still have work to do to ensure our patients are seen and treated quickly. We will continue our progress reducing the backlog of waiting lists, working towards the NHS England target of no-one waiting more than a year for treatment by March 2025.”

A patient first

The trust also celebrated a first when hip replacement patient Tim Parker became the first Leicester hospitals patient to be discharged from hospital on the day of his surgery. Mr Parker underwent a total hip replacement at the end of last year and was back home the very same day.

He said it was “really nice” to be able to go home so quickly as he felt “much more relaxed at home”. Mr Parker said: “It’s really nice that it all came together for me to be able to go home so quickly. There was no pressure to do so, but it was explained to me pre-op that, as long as everything went to plan, they wouldn’t need to keep me in overnight.”

He added: “It’s much more relaxed at home, with less disturbance, so I wanted to get home as soon as I could. However, the process was always led by me as we moved through the steps and I didn’t feel rushed. It was slick and synchronised and I felt very well looked after and cared for.”

Mr Parker’s swift discharge was the result of the orthopaedic team’s work to devise and implement a streamlined Leicester Enhanced Arthroplasty Pathway (LEAP) for hip and knee joint replacement surgery patients, UHL said. LEAP was rolled out in summer 2023.

Consultant orthopaedic surgeon Andrew Brown leads the multi-disciplinary team who “spent months” developing the new pathway. Mr Brown said: “As a result of improved coordination and more efficient ways of working together across disciplines, we’re seeing our patients’ average length of stay fall significantly, with 50 per cent now in hospital for only one night.

“The pathway is called ‘LEAP’ and it certainly represents the biggest leap forward in my 20 years here at Leicester’s Hospitals. In previous decades, patients might have expected to stay in hospital for days, or even weeks after hip or knee replacement surgery. However, where it’s possible and safe for them to do so, getting mobile and working back towards normal routines in a home environment, with pain control and support in place, is much more conducive to the patient’s recovery.”

Redesigning care

Part of the trust success can also be attributed to the new East Midlands Planned Care Centre, phase one of which opened at Leicester General Hospital in July 2023. Phase two of the scheme is expected to be complete by the end of the year, at which point the centre is expected to treat 100,000 patients a year.

UHL said it is designed to handle hundreds of less complex procedures, such as keyhole surgery for gall bladders and hernia repairs. The single-storey building next to the Brandon Unit at Leicester General currently contains an operating theatre, as well as pre-op and post-op beds for patients.

Plans are to expand it into the vacant Brandon Unit. Ultimately, there will be 14 outpatient rooms, four ‘clean rooms’ and two theatres.

A planning application also went in recently for a new endoscopy unit next to the planned care centre. If approved, that will see around 17,500 patients a year.

The trust has also rolled out new technology which it said is helping to save thousands of clinical hours and hundreds of thousands of pounds a year. In partnership with digital communication platform Accurx, the trust said it is using the technology to implement digital patient questionnaires, streamline the patient journey and enable effective triaging, often saving the need for an appointment.

As part of the Accurx partnership, patients on waiting lists are also contacted via SMS to confirm whether they still need their scheduled appointment, reducing ‘no-shows’, the trust added. Patients are also able to use digital patient-initiated follow-up, making it easier to access elective care.

Mr Melbourne said these innovations “were crucial to reducing waiting lists”. He added: “We have seen huge developments in patient care, implementing streamlined services that allow us to treat more people. For instance, the Leicester Enhanced Arthroplasty Pathway has seen the average length of patient stay fall significantly, with 50 per cent now in hospital for only one night. The service has even been able to discharge a hip replacement patient on the same day as the operation.

Helen Hendley, director of planned care for the Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Integrated Care Board, which oversees local NHS services, said: “We are really proud of how Leicester’s Hospitals have significantly reduced the time people need to wait for treatment locally. We would like to thank everyone for their hard work and dedication to achieving this, which has gone a long way to improving people’s experience. We know there is more to do and we look forward to supporting colleagues to continue this great progress over the coming year.”