MORE than 1,000 patients were waiting longer than six weeks for a diagnosis in February at Hampshire Hospitals Foundation Trust (HHFT) according to new figures.

A report to the trust’s board of directors in March shows the number of patients waiting longer than six weeks for diagnosis, against a target of one per cent.

The trust has not met this target since before August 2019 - which is when the figures go back to. 

The number of patients waiting longer than six weeks has steadily increased since August 2019 when 181 patients were waiting – representing 2.82 per cent – to 1,133 in February this year, which is 16.85 per cent.

The worst month was April last year, at the height of the pandemic when much hospital activity was cancelled. A total of 3,648 patients waited longer than six weeks for diagnosis in April 2020, which was 58.56 per cent.

This gradually fell as the situation with the pandemic improved, before slightly increasing in December and January then falling again in February.

The report said: “The trust did not achieve the target in February with performance of 16.85 per cent against the one per cent target.

“There were 1,133 breaches in total across most modalities, a decrease of 299 breaches from January.”

It said a significant number of the breaches relate to endoscopy.

However, a temporary facility in the car park at Basingstoke hospital has provided extra capacity to perform endoscopies and has “helped to contribute to reducing the volume of patients waiting over six weeks in the month”.

It added that MRI also “made good progress in reducing their over six week waits”.

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