It could take up to five years for the NHS to clear the pandemic-related backlog of delayed heart diagnosis, treatment or elective surgery, and there could be more than half a million people waiting for heart care by January 2024, a heart charity has warned.
A report from the British Heart Foundation, The Untold Heartbreak, has estimated that waits for heart care and diagnosis could peak at 550,385 people by January 2024 if the NHS in England does not get enough investment and is still under increased pressure from Covid-19, a bad winter, or both.
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At the same time, the number of people waiting for heart surgery could almost double by February 2022 compared to pre-pandemic levels, with numbers peaking at 15,384 people, it calculated.
Even before the pandemic began, around 225,000 people in England were on cardiology waiting lists for heart diagnosis or treatment, while around 8,400 people were waiting for heart surgery.
“Without decisive action now, we estimate it will take between three and five years for the heart care backlog to recover to pre-pandemic levels,” the charity warned.
Long waits for diagnosis and treatment of conditions such as coronary heart disease, abnormal heart rhythms and heart failure can be emotionally distressing. It can also mean people struggling to stay in or sustain employment, especially if they are in an active or physically arduous role, and potentially becoming more unwell or even dying before getting treated.
There were 5,800 ‘excess’ deaths from heart and circulatory conditions in the first year of the pandemic in England, the BHF has said, with delays to care and treatment likely to have played a contributory role.
Professor Sir Nilesh Samani, BHF medical director, said: “Even before the pandemic began, waiting lists for vital heart care were far too long. As this report shows, the pandemic has since pushed the NHS towards breaking point, with devastating consequences for the 7.6 million people living with heart and circulatory diseases in the UK.”
Separately, it has been estimated that almost 1.2 million people in England have been waiting at least six months for NHS treatment or surgery, such as such as brain surgery and eye treatment, because of pandemic-related backlogs.
The May 2021 figures from NHS England are almost five times that recorded in the same period in 2019 , before the pandemic hit, according to a report in The Guardian newspaper, and also includes patients requiring gynaecological services.
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A total of 212,770 patients had waited for more than six months for trauma and orthopaedic services. A further 130,224 waited for more than six months for ophthalmology services.
The number of patients waiting for gynaecological services stood at 15,647 in May 2019, rising to 48,168 in May 2020 before reaching 87,628 in the same period this year, it added.
