HOSPITAL bosses have been making the case for further investment in facilities in the region.
Shadow Health secretary Wes Streeting visited the University Hospital of North Tees to highlight the experiences of 12,500 people waiting for cancer tests and scans from trusts in Teesside, County Durham and Darlington.
Figures show that at the end of December 2021, there were 88,000 people on the waiting list at the NHS trusts, with 2,500 people waiting for more than a year for an appointment.
Mr Streeting said cancer patients were waiting longer than they should for treatment, with one in five suspected cancer patients waiting longer than the recommended two weeks to see a specialist.
He visited the hospital’s breast cancer unit, as well as its emergency department, which had a £3m investment in 2020, and the staff’s ‘rainbow room’, which was kitted out thanks to money raised by Sir Captain Tom Moore during the Covid pandemic and is aimed at improving the wellbeing and morale of NHS workers.
Read more: Thousands of County Durham patients waiting for routine treatment
Mr Streeting said: “Staff are doing an excellent job but in spite of the building rather than being supported by the facilities and that has to change.”
Adding that it was not just a Covid backlog, he said: “My frustration is not just that they didn’t fix the roof when the sun was shining but they took off the roof and removed the floorboards which meant the NHS was less resilient when the pandemic hit and has a harder job now to reduce the backlog.”
Alex Cunningham, the Labour MP for Stockton North, who accompanied Mr Streeting, said the problem was trying to fit modern services into an “old fashioned building”.
“That’s a long term problem,” he added.
Levi Buckley, chief operating officer of North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust, led the tour of the hospital in Stockton, highlighting to the shadow minister the difficulties faced as a result of its ageing infrastructure, as well as work done to try and tackle health inequalities in the region.
He said: “A key message is our work to tackle health inequalities. For people in Hartlepool and Stockton we have a mix of affluent areas and ones of high deprivation. Within Stockton there’s a 14 year gap between the best and worst and our job is to help people so they don’t go into hospital.
"The second (message) is the quality of the estate and the investment needed. This hospital has about 10 years of lifespan. It’s 50 years old. There are limitations.
“The emergency department has had a £3m investment however you can only do so much.
“You could keep patching it up and adding to it but at some point its less cost effective.”
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Mr Streeting said there had to be a focus on promoting good health – and preventing bad health – to ensure pressure on the NHS did not become unsustainable.
He added: “Look at the health inequalities in this region and across England. If they’re serious about levelling up it is essential its about people and improving their life chances and reducing the gap between the richest and poorest.”
Emergency doctor Kevin Moore told the shadow health secretary about the challenges posed by the building and told him that workers were “tired” after going “above and beyond” during the pandemic.
Mr Streeting said a "work place strategy" was needed to tackle the issue.
A spokesman for the Department for Health and Social Care said: “We know the pandemic has had a serious impact on people living with cancer, and we’re committed to investing in the NHS to tackle the treatment backlog.
“That’s why the Health and Social Care Secretary has declared a national war on cancer and why we are developing a 10-Year Cancer Plan to set out how we will lead the world in cancer care.
“Our record investment in the NHS included an extra £2 billion in 2021 and £8 billion over the next three years to cut waiting times, including delivering an extra nine million checks, scans and operations.”
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