THIRTEEN patients waited more than one year for treatment according to figures released by Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust (WAHT) this week.
A board meeting heard that one of these had been in general surgery, one in gynaecology and 11 in trauma and orthopaedics.
Members heard that increased pressures in Accident & Emergency, staffing gaps and an inability to recruit had all impacted on service provision and waiting times.
Documents detailed how WAHT performance against the key 18 week Referral to Treatment Time had been steadily declining month on month, levelling out at 83 per cent.
The government target is 92 per cent.
The trust is also slipping in its 62 day target for cancer patients from their GP referral to receiving their first treatment.
Meanwhile the two week target for patients with possible but unconfirmed breast cancer had plummeted to 52 per cent in March after hitting 80 per cent in February. The government target is 93 per cent.
Speaking on the 52 week wait, a trust spokesperson said: “This is in part as a result of stopping elective operations over the Christmas and New Year period in order to focus on the extreme emergency pressures that the Trust was experiencing.
“Elective operations commenced again in March and a plan is in place to reduce the number of patients waiting more than 52 weeks significantly over the next month.”
They added that a plan was in place to to return to achieving the 93 per cent breast two week wait by August.
