To accompany the below communication we have links and resources available on our guidance page which can be found under 'patient information'

Summary

Duplicated from 'Stakeholder briefing note – 11th April 2022 NHS Waiting list backlog'

Reducing the waiting list backlog continues to be a focus for the health and care system in Greater Manchester (GM).

At the beginning of January 2022, the difficult decision was made to pause non-urgent surgery due to the impact of the Omicron variant which saw increased hospitalisations and staff absences. The number of people on the total waiting list to start treatment has increased as a result.

Non-urgent surgery started to resume from 24th January and hospitals continue to work hard to reschedule procedures and get more people seen and treated. We are pleased that we were able to continue outpatient appointments during the recent wave.

NHS England and NHS Improvement (NHSEI) has published the revised Network Contract Directed Enhanced Service (DES) which takes effect from 1 April 2022.

The vast majority of the proposals are not new and build on the five-year contractual framework, Investment and Evolution, agreed with the BMA’s General Practice Committee England (GPC England) in January 2019.

From 1 April, in line with UKHSA advice, the following updated arrangements for staff and patient testing will apply.

Patient facing staff should continue to test twice weekly when asymptomatic. LAMP testing (saliva tests) will no longer be available, but LFD tests for patient facing staff will continue to be available through the gov.uk portal.

All symptomatic staff should test using LFDs and continue to follow the current return to work guidance. In a change to testing policy, staff who are household contacts of a positive COVID-19 case will no longer be required to have a PCR test in order to return to work. Symptomatic staff can continue to access LFDs via the gov.uk portal.

GPs and their teams faced an extremely challenging time during the COVID-19 pandemic. At the same time, general practice in England continues to face a worsening workforce crisis. BMA research published last year showed that the NHS has lost nearly 2,000 full-time equivalent GPs in England since 2015.