By Nadeem Badshah
SOME British Asian patients are missing vital phone calls from hospitals while waiting lists are at record levels, doctors have warned.
Medics have come across cases of people not answering their phone or failing to attend appointments as they are unable to attend with a family member due to the Covid crisis.
Hospitals are offering more phone consultations in a bid to clear a backlog with nearly 388,000 people waiting more than a year to start treatment.
About 4.7 million people are waiting for hospital treatment, the highest number since at least 2007, according to NHS England data for February. And the number of people waiting for a year or more is higher than at any time in more than 13 years.
It has led to doctors to call for services to offer more interpreters and messages in different south Asian languages to prevent patients missing check-ups.
Dr Chandra Kanneganti, a GP in Staffordshire, told Eastern Eye: “The main issue with the Covid pandemic is most outpatient services were closed for three or four months, then the second wave came and it was closed again.
“Hospitals are doing phone consultations. If you don’t answer the phone or cannot understand English, you are discharged and have to go back to your GP.
“Patients often don’t know who to contact. Messages are sometimes only in English and not in other languages.
“Sometimes, they want their family to be there for a face to face appointment, so a phone consultation is not the best option.
“I would say don’t hide your chronic problem because of worries about coronavirus, attend your hospital appointments.”
Public Health England figures in May showed that a third fewer cancers were detected at stage one, when the chances of survival are highest, in the early months of the pandemic than during the same months a year before.
While 18,400 people in England had their condition diagnosed at stage one between March and June 2019, this dropped by 33 per cent to 12,400 in the same period last year.
And fewer people were admitted to accident and emergency departments, down by more than 50,000 to 503,913 in March compared with the same time in 2019, before the pandemic hit.
Dr Kanneganti, chair of the British International Doctors Association, added: “It’s going to be a huge task despite the government giving funding to hospitals for extra appointments. “It creates pressure for GPs who have to chase up hospitals.
“Locally, we have asked hospitals to give us weekly waiting times for all specialities.”
Meanwhile, a recent British Medical Association (BMA) survey found that 52 per cent of doctors have “little to no confidence” they will be able to manage patient demand when normal NHS services resume. Professor Kailash Chand, honorary vice president of the BMA, believes the NHS is short of 100,000 workers and the bulk of funding is being diverted to private health firms.
He told Eastern Eye: “The sheer scale of the challenge for the NHS in the coming months, and the anxiety and concern felt by frontline doctors and nurses who are exhausted as they look ahead to what will likely be one of the most challenging times of their careers.
“Diagnoses of common physical ailments like diabetes, heart diseases and mental health conditions has fallen by up to half during the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic. Going into the pandemic, the NHS was already in a bad state, facing high workload, staff shortages, and a lack of funding and resources.
“Since then, things have gotten a lot worse – there is now a tsunami of backlog waiting to hit the NHS, and I wouldn’t be surprised if this is the straw that breaks the camel’s back.”
Rachel Power, chief executive of The Patients Association, said its research has consistently shown us that those who were already disadvantaged have faced the heaviest toll in the pandemic and the growth in waiting times is no exception.
She added: “Many people who need treatment are having to wait longer with pain, discomfort and uncertainty hanging over them.
“For some, the outcome of their treatment won’t be as good as it otherwise would have been, and for some people that will mean the difference between life and death. Sadly, it will take years to turn the situation around.”
Some hospitals are putting on extra surgery sessions in the evenings and at weekends to tackle the NHS’s spiralling waiting list and slash waiting times.
Since April, 10 hospitals in west and north-west London have joined forces to treat each other’s patients.
Experts believe using robots more in wards is another solution to ease the pressure on the health service.
Bristol’s Southmead Hospital has tested communication robots which are driven around remotely. They enable patients in intensive care to talk to relatives who cannot be by their bedside and with a doctor who may be at home shielding.
Tim Whittlestone, North Bristol NHS Trust’s deputy medical director, said: “These communication robots feel like a bit of the Covid legacy. Covid suddenly gives you a need for this technology.
“They’re not just helpful because of the pandemic, they’re helpful for staff too.
“When you have a limited number of doctors and nurses, they allow a degree of flexibility for people to do ward rounds remotely, and without their PPE [personal protective equipment] on, or to work from a more comfortable setting, or from home if they’re isolating.”
The NHS says it is treating people in order of clinical need. NHS England recently announced an additional £1 billion to help trusts restore operations and other services to get as many people treated as possible.
Saffron Cordery, deputy chief executive of NHS Providers, said: “Trust leaders are extremely concerned with the size of waiting lists, not just for operations and diagnostic testing but for all types of care, including mental health services.
“Across hospitals, ambulance, community and mental health sectors, trusts are innovating and adapting their ways of working to meet demand. Some trusts are expanding their hours – putting on extra sessions in the evening and weekends – to make sure that high priority patients are seen as quickly as possible to reduce the risk of patient harm due to delays.
“The workforce are going above and beyond to deliver.”
People forced to seek private care
*LATA DESAI, 30, from London, said that she sought private medical care for her baby son during the pandemic.
She told Eastern Eye: “The NHS waiting list for specialist appointments is even longer now because of lockdown. As a parent it is worrying when you see your child suffering and you just want to find the quickest way possible to get help.
“My son was born premature and was due to have an appointment with the paediatrician in March. I chased the hospital twice and still was not given any appointment.
“My son has a number of problems and I just don’t have the time to wait any extra time for this appointment or any referrals,” she said.
* Name has been changed.
Anti-Racism protesters come out in support of refugees outside the Cladhan Hotel on September 13, 2025 in Falkirk, Scotland. (Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)
