NHS patients left unable to work due to crippling pain face waiting three or four years for operations because of a “colossal backlog”.
Latest NHS England data shows waiting lists have hit a record high of five million – with 436,000 patients waiting over a year for treatment.
At the start of the pandemic, knee and hip operations were halted, leaving people suffering in agony.
Professor Vivien Lees, a plastic and hand surgeon at Manchester University NHS Foundation, said some patients are now waiting up to four years for elective surgery as the NHS struggles to get back on track.
She warned delaying cases has a “major socio-economic impact”, explaining: “Our elective surgery will include painful joints and bent fingers – hands that are very important for going out to earn your living.”
The Royal College of Surgeons is calling for specialist hubs to be set up to help tackle the “colossal backlog”.
Pleading for an extra £1billion of funding for the next five years, RCS President Prof Neil Mortensen said: “We need Government support... Surgery must be available on the NHS all year round, not stop and start.”
