King’s Mill Hospital: all the key numbers for the NHS Trust in May

Junior doctors walked out on Thursday as part of five days of industrial action – amid record waiting lists across England.

NHS England figures show 51,456 patients were waiting for non-urgent elective operations or treatment at SFH – which runs Sutton’s King’s Mill, Mansfield Community and Newark hospitals – at the end of May, up from 49,954 in April, and 42,571 in May 2022.

Of those, 1,087, 2 per cent, had been waiting for longer than a year.

The median waiting time from referral at an NHS Trust to treatment at SFH was 12 weeks at the end of May , the same as in April.

Nationally, 7.5 million people were waiting to start treatment at the end of May.

Junior doctors walked out for five days from 7am on Thursday in the longest spell of industrial action in the history of the health service.

They returned to work at 7am on July 18 and 48 hours later consultants are set to strike for two days. Radiographers across 43 NHS trusts will also walk out for two days from July 25.

Sir Julian Hartley, NHS Providers chief executive, called industrial action a “black cloud” hanging over the health service, which is currently in the “most challenging period of operational pressure”.

Separate figures show 1.6 million patients in England were waiting for a key diagnostic test in May – the same as in April.

At SFH, 11,475 patients were waiting for one of 12 standard tests, such as an MRI scan, non-obstetric ultrasound or gastroscopy at this time.

Of them, 3,538, 31 per cent, had been waiting for at least six weeks.

Other figures from NHS England show that of 102 patients urgently referred by the NHS who were treated at SFH hospitals in May, 65 were receiving cancer treatment within two months of their referral.

A month previously – when 76 patients were referred – 58 were treated within 62 days.

In May 2022, 62 patients were treated within this period, out of 106 patients that were referred.

Dr Sarah Scobie, acting director of research at the Nuffield Trust think tank, said: “Figures on NHS performance and GP patient experience illustrate clearly that there will be no sudden return to the waiting times the public have been promised and still expect".

“The update from the NHS that it will adjust recovery targets on waits for planned operations is an acceptance of the difficult reality services now face with no end to doctor strikes in sight.”

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said: “This Government is working to cut waiting times and the NHS is treating record numbers of patients each day."

“We have virtually eliminated 18-month waits, and are taking immediate action to improve urgent care, getting 800 new ambulances on the road, adding 5,000 hospital beds and scaling up virtual wards.”

SFH has been approached for comment.