Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust has begun contacting patients this week in an attempt to speed up care for thousands of people on hospital waiting lists.

From Thursday 30 June, we will start contacting 31,000 people who are waiting for either an outpatient appointment or routine procedure at Hull Royal Infirmary or Castle Hill Hospital.  Patients will be contacted in batches of 500 to 1,000 people at a time, and they will be asked whether they wish to continue waiting, whether they no longer need to be seen, if they have had their treatment elsewhere, or if they wish to delay treatment.

The work is being carried out in an attempt to combat lengthy hospital waiting lists by ensuring the information held is up to date, and only those who need to be seen remain on the list.

Patients will receive either:

• A text message inviting them to complete a short online survey to indicate their current position, or
• A letter by post inviting them to contact the Trust by phone to indicate their current position (letters will be sent where a patient has no mobile number on file).

Julia Mizon, Deputy Chief Operating Officer for Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust says:

“The Covid-19 pandemic has caused further delays for people awaiting outpatient appointments and routine procedures across the country, and the situation is the same here in Hull.

“We are working hard to reduce the number of patients waiting, and one important part of this is to ensure that our waiting lists are accurate and up to date. For some patients, a significant amount of time may have passed since they were last reviewed, for example, and so their situation may now have changed.

“This week, the Trust has begun to contact elective patients who have waited more than 18 weeks from the decision to treat but still have no confirmed appointment date, starting with those on our gynaecology waiting lists. Patients will be asked whether they still need their appointment, whether they wish to delay treatment or whether they wish to remove themselves from the list. Patients will usually be contacted via text message and asked to follow a link to complete a short online survey, but letters will be sent in the post to those patients with no mobile phone number on their record.

“This exercise is designed to give us the most up to date position on our patients’ needs, and to speed up care for those who do still need to see us by removing those who don’t from our list.  We expect to complete this work within eight weeks.

“We are mindful of the impact which any delay can have on a patient’s wellbeing and quality of life, and so we would like to thank those who are still waiting for their ongoing patience and understanding.

“We remain committed to working through all of our lists as quickly and as safely as possible.”