Hospital bosses are looking at ways to “stop the clock” for patients who decline appointments in a bid to tackle waiting list targets.
Around 27,000 patients are on waiting lists and more than 15 per cent of cases, patients are not treated within 18 weeks of referral.
National targets dictate that Bolton NHS Foundation Trust should have no more than 22,812 patients on waiting lists and at least 92 per cent should be seen in 18 weeks.
Directors put the failings down to demand simply exceeding capacity.
But chief operating officer Andy Ennis said that the target times do not take account of patients being unable to attend appointments.
He explained that the figures would improve if the trust could “stop the clock” when a patient turns down an appointment.
The operations boss told the board of directors that the trust will struggle to tackle waiting lists without extra funding.
He said: “We can do things to improve this but we will need funding to do it. It will take us some time to get this back up It’s very quick to get into a problem, but it’s very hard to get out of it unless you throw money at it.”
Earlier in October, Mr Ennis warned that waiting lists would continue to grow.
It was also revealed that six patients have been on waiting lists for more than a year.
The operations boss told the board that trusts across the country are struggling with 18-week targets and that there is a national push to keep patients off 52-week waiting lists.
Trusts have also been urged not to let waiting lists grow.
Mr Ennis presented an action plan on the trust’s referral to treatment target times.
The report described the delivering shorter waiting lists as “extremely challenging” as the winter begins.
As part of a “winter stock take” the trust has forecast a waiting list size of 25,000 noting that this target will be challenging but possible.
The action plan takes a “multi-pronged” approach which includes implementing changes to structures and processes to address data quality and validation issues.
