The Bolton Trust had no patients facing a 'routine' wait of 18 months or longer for treatment as of March, new figures show – despite the Government failing to eradicate these waits across England.

New data published shows that 31 patients had been waiting for treatment at Bolton NHS Foundation Trust for 18 months or more.

Of those 29 per cent were waiting out of choice, 50 per cent were waiting as a result of  global shortage of corneas and 21 per cent were for other reasons - none was classed as 'routine wait'.

In total, the figures show 39,752 patients were waiting for treatment at the Bolton Trust at the end of March, with 1,801 waiting for a year or more.

The Bolton News: treatment timestreatment times (Image: RADAR/PA)

Joanne Street, Director of Operations at Bolton NHS Foundation Trust, said: “Our hospital and community teams have made remarkable progress in reducing the amount of time our patients are waiting for treatment, and these figures are a reflection of their hard work and dedication.

“Despite the challenges of the past three years, by investing in our workforce and new initiatives, such as diagnostic hubs, patient initiated follow ups, and increased capacity, we are able to make sure people in Bolton are getting the care they need as early as possible.

“We do recognise however, that despite our efforts, many people are still waiting much longer than we would like for their treatment.

“If this is impacting you, extra support, advice, and information about waiting times can be found on NHS Greater Manchester’s ‘While You Wait’ website.”

The government and NHS England set a goal of clearing all waits of more than 18 months by April – excluding very complex cases or patients who choose to wait longer.

But the latest figures show the government has fallen short, with 41 per cent of the 10,737 cases falling into the category of people choosing to wait or exceptionally complex cases – leaving the remainder as routine waits for treatment.

Shadow health secretary Wes Streeting said this broken promise had left "thousands of patients in pain and discomfort for unacceptably long".

He said: “This is just the latest broken promise that shows you can’t trust the Tories with the NHS.

“Ministers blame strikes, as if they are mere bystanders. It was their refusal to speak to nurses and junior doctors that forced them out on strike in the first place.”

This waiting list peaked in September 2021, when nearly 250,000 people were waiting 18 months for treatment – including 992 at the Bolton Trust.

Sir Julian Hartley, chief executive of NHS Providers, said: “Trusts have pulled out all the stops to cut by 90 per cent the number of people waiting 78 weeks or more for care – a remarkable achievement against a backdrop of months of strikes, severe staff shortages and a yawning gap between capacity and growing demand.

“Staff and trust leaders deserve credit for continuing to work flat out to see people as quickly as possible and to improve the flow of patients through the whole health system.

“But there’s a long way to go to get waiting times and lists down across physical and mental services to where patients and the NHS want.”

Health Secretary Steve Barclay said: “Cutting waiting lists to ensure people get the care they need more quickly is one of the Government’s five key priorities."

He continued: “Thanks to the hard work and dedication of healthcare staff backed by Government support, the NHS has now cut 18-month waits by more than 91 per cent."

“Today’s significant milestone shows we’re delivering on our Elective Recovery Plan despite NHS strikes and the challenging winter," Mr Barclay added.

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