Back in November, along with other hospitals in Greater Manchester we took the difficult decision to cancel some planned operations to help deal with the increased number of cases of Covid 19.
In recent weeks the number of people in hospital with Covid has started to fall, as have numbers of cases in the community. Covid will be with us for some time, but we hope we are moving permanently away from the intense pressure the NHS has seen over the last year.
Due to this we are now pleased to report our plans to restart planned care and begin to catch up on the backlog of people waiting.
Our consultants will be looking at who has the greatest clinical need and who has waited the longest, and prioritising people against these two key principles as each service gets back up and running.
We may be asking people to see a different consultant for their treatment, or have their procedures in a different hospital to the one they may have expected to have gone to, including private hospitals in the independent sector.
If patients are invited to have their treatment in a different place or with a different team and have any concerns they will be able to discuss this with a clinician to talk about options.
We know many people waiting for treatment will be disappointed or worried, and we will be contacting everyone affected as soon as possible over the coming months. Please continue to bear with us.
Thank you to our patients for their continued support and patience.