THURROCK doctors have voiced their concerns about long waiting lists at hospitals in the region.

Doctors attending Thurrock Clinical Commissioning group's recent governing body meeting said patients were waiting far longer for appointments at mid and south Essex hospitals than in other areas.

Dr Henry Okoi from the Derry Court Medical Practice in South Ockendon said: "The waiting list is increasing. Have we been able to find out why this is happening?

"I just find this a huge risk to primary care because all these patients who are waiting and who are unable to get to a consultant they go to A&E and are bounced back to the GP or while they are waiting for an appointment they keep coming to the GP asking what is happening. Even if you do an urgent referral they don't prioritise them anyway."

Dr Okoi added: "So far we have not been able to identify what is happening so I was asking myself is it because there is a workforce problem and they are struggling to recruit or is it because there is not enough money to get the appropriate specialist because ultimately we need people who come and do this work and at the moment there is anxiety that this problem is going to get worse and worse. Other hospitals are managing it better. It's a national problem but other hospitals are offering maybe two or three months and even sometimes sooner.

"A patient I referred to endocrinology in March for a problem was waiting and waiting and in July the patient was frustrated. I asked the patient if she wanted to go to Darent Valley. I went there and I booked a one week urgent appointment there and then.

"So this is a particular problem with us and I don't see the light at the end of the tunnel."

Chairman Dr Anil Kallil said: "You do find if you want to book a patient to our local hospital it takes much, much longer than our neighbouring hospitals. I'm sure there is lots of work going behind to solve this problem."

Dr Nimal Raj said results of hospital investigations were taking too long to get back to surgeries so that doctors can progress treatment. He added: The issue is there has to be a definite contingency structure with the hospital. The problem is not going to be solved because the backlog is going up and the referrals are still going up.

Lay member, Alan Hudson said: "Are we learning the lessons? If someone is doing better elsewhere are we looking at them and saying why can't we do it? Is it a matter of cost or is it a matter of staff. Let's be prepared to learn the lessons. If they can do it well there why can't we do it here. Once we understand the reasons why we can perhaps start putting it right.

"We must be prepared to learn from other people."

Mark Barker, Chief Finance Officer for the five clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) across Mid and South Essex said: "It's not a finance issue to address this. The finances are there to support recovery and improvement. What we do have is a workforce issue and that's the constraining factor.

"As a consequence we are in the same boat as everybody else trying to fish from a limited pool with available resources to address the pressure that everyone is facing.

"The intention is to make sure that the backlog, wherever it exits, whether it be referrals, the length of stay in beds, whatever the issue that we address that with an elective recovery programme."