RESTARTING more routine hospital appointments will require a reduction in COVID-19 cases which have plateaued, Bolton’s NHS commissioner has said.

Urgent healthcare has continued throughout the coronavirus crisis and some “high priority” routine appointments have restarted in recent weeks.

A&E attendance and GP visits have also increased after concerns that people were not seeking medical help for heart attack, stroke and cancer symptoms.

But the borough’s clinical commissioning group (CCG) has said that some services will require a reduction in coronavirus cases before they can restart.

Chief officer Su Long also told the CCG board on Friday that more private healthcare providers may need to be commissioned to manage waiting lists.

She said: “Any recovery of waiting times or restarting of more routine services is reliant on further reduction of COVID.

“At the moment, we’re at a relatively flat level in terms of hospital admissions.

“There has been an increase in GP practices and in our hospital of demand for non-COVID. All GPs are continuing to refer patients with cancer symptoms.

“The work we’ve done so far suggests that the high priority work can go ahead but to really start all routine services and to even make a dent in current waiting lists would need a far greater use of independent capacity as well as a reduction in COVID demand.”

 

Stuart Liversedge, clinical director of primary care and health improvement, told the board that there has been a significant increase in NHS activity in the last two weeks addressing concerns about patients not presenting to GPs.

But the health service now needs “catch up” on referrals from GPs.

He said: “In the past few weeks, we’ve heard our patients acknowledge that they sat on symptoms for four to five weeks where in ordinary circumstances they might have attended instantly.

“We had around 25 per cent, at its peak, of the number of suspected cancer referrals we’d normally expect. That’s now picked up and we’re catching up.

“A lot of consultants have said patients are saying, ‘I would have come to see you earlier, but I knew you were busy’ – we weren’t – ‘and I knew it wasn’t safe’  – it wasn’t.”

GPs are conducting more telephone, video and other online consultations now and patients are encouraged to call their surgery to arrange an appointment.

Dr Dharmesh Mistry, a GP, welcomed the “open for business” message, but reminded the board of the dangers of patients attending practices in person.

He said: “What we don’t want is people turning up for health care unannounced. Yes, it’s safe to go to your GP, but when an assessment is made to say it’s safe.”