I’ve recently provided analysis work in this piece by the RCOG (Royal College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology) which highlights the impact the Covid-19 pandemic has had on wait lists for women in the United Kingdom.
Over the course of the pandemic, far fewer individuals sought treatment across the NHS, with the greatest proportional impact in gynaecology. This study splits the waiting list into two parts, the known list (the unmet need) and the unknown list (the hidden need). The known list is easy, it’s just the number of people currently waiting for treatment. The hidden need is a bit more complex, in this study it was taken as the difference between the number of individuals that came forward during the pandemic compared to a smoothed average of that month in the year prior to the pandemic. That’s a lot of words but it boils down to: if 100 people came forward in July 2019, and only 75 in July 2020, the hidden need for July 2020 would be 25.
With the known waiting list having soared by over 60% from before the pandemic to a new record high of over 400,000 in England alone, the scale of the problem is clear to see. Accounting for hidden need, the known wait list almost doubles to over 800,000. When adjusting for population in England, it puts gynaecology up near those specialities with the highest rate at over 1,600 people waiting per 100,000. However, this for gynaecology is short sighted, as it only effects women. Therefore the number of women waiting for treatment per 100,000 is over 3,000.
This report is a fantastic, but also terrifying read. It goes in depth with a few women to really look at how these aren’t just numbers, but every single one of them is a scared, in pain, and in real need of help person.
Really great to see reporting on this, here are links to the study and news articles on it:
RCOG – Left for too long: Understanding the scale and impact of the gynaecology waiting lists
BMJ – Women face “unacceptable” waiting lists for gynaecology treatment, report finds
BBC – Gynaecology waits soar by 60% during pandemic
Refiner29 – NHS Waiting Times Are At Crisis Point & Causing Infertility
Daily Mail – How WOMEN are suffering most from the fallout of Covid