The surgical waiting list has been reduced by 55 days compared to February 2021. Thus, the average delay to undergo surgery in a public hospital in the Valencian Community stands at 95 days in February, compared to 150 days in February 2021. Likewise, compared to last January, the average delay has been reduced by 8 days.
On the other hand, there are 9,146 fewer people on the waiting list compared to February last year. In fact, there are currently 61,223 people waiting for an intervention compared to 70,369 the previous year. In addition, compared to last January, there are 1,161 fewer people on the waiting list.
This decrease compared to the previous year can be seen in practically all health departments. Specifically, it is significant in the health department of Castelló (116 days less compared to January last year), in Vinaròs (-114 days), Hospital Provincial de Castelló (-119 days), Hospital General de València (-81 days), Sagunt Hospital (-74 days), Arnau-Llíria department (-66 days) and Orihuela (-67 days).
On the other hand, in terms of pathologies, there is also an interannual improvement in terms of surgical waiting time. In this sense, the delay in adeno-tonsillectomy interventions (-138 days), knee prostheses (-81 days), hallus valgus or bunion (-73 days), arthroscopy (-65 days) or varicose veins (- 63).
In fact, it significantly reduces the number of pending interventions in some pathologies. For example, in February there were 1,489 fewer interventions pending for cataracts compared to February 2021, for knee prostheses 718 fewer interventions, for arthroscopy 560 fewer and for adeno-tonsillectomy 432 fewer interventions pending than in February 2021.
Likewise, self-concert activity has increased by 60.91%, which is the formula through which health and non-health personnel, on a voluntary and paid basis, lengthen their working hours to carry out surgical activities. In fact, self-concert interventions have gone from 1,819 in January to 2,927 in February.
Finally, it should be remembered that the surgical waiting list in no case affects urgent, oncological and non-delayed interventions, which are treated preferentially, also in a pandemic.
