COVID-19 and the Healthcare Backlog

The coronavirus pandemic has had a profound effect on our lives for the last few years, with 2020’s lockdown measures distancing families and networks, and all but collapsing the economy for small and independent businesses. Even the road to recovery has been frustrated by the impact of the virus, stalling the re-opening of city centres, increasing inflation against wages and partly causing a labour shortage. But nowhere has COVID’s effect been more keenly felt than in healthcare, existing as the frontline of the pandemic as well as an essential service for all. Even as the government announce intentions to remove coronavirus restrictions completely, the NHS is still overburdened – the results of which may affect UK households for years to come.

NHS Backlog

One of the more visible ways in which the NHS has been affected by the pandemic can be found in waiting lists for elective care, which have ballooned in recent months – and are projected to have doubled by March 2025. As of September 2021, the waiting list for elective procedures (which include kidney stone removal and joint replacement surgeries) encompassed more than 5.8 million people. According to NAO figures, that figure could become 12 million, or just shy of one in five UK citizens.

GP Pressures

These waiting lists have had a severe knock-on effect on GP practises across the country, which have already encountered issues from successive budget cuts as well as restrictions caused by the virus. Patients awaiting care often require additional medical assistance prior to their surgery, resulting in increased pressure on appointments – which has, in part, led to the commonly-experience “lottery” of attempting to book a GP appointment in the early morning.

As a result of the increased strain experienced by the NHS across the board, there are concerns that patient care will suffer, with a potential increase in misdiagnosis, mis-prescription or other failures in duty of care resulting from an inadequate phone appointment or a rushed visit. Patients who have suffered as a result of the backlogs may be eligible to file an NHS negligence claim with a specialist solicitor, the resulting compensation presenting some small comfort for an unprecedented strain on healthcare at large.

Conclusion

With the healthcare backlog, and other strains on the NHS such as funding and staff shortages, the light at the end of the tunnel is somewhat dim; there are seemingly insurmountable obstacles to managing the demand on the service, from training and onboarding new professionals to creating more beds and units. Government proposals to build more hospitals have been mired in controversy, as high-profile MPs have claimed that hospital refurbishments count to the figure; meanwhile, Brexit has decreased the number of nurses migrating from the EU by more than 87%. The way out for the NHS is long and arduous, and often comes down to funding. Though initiatives are in place to improve care, it may be years before the effects of the coronavirus pandemic recede from our healthcare system.