HOSPITALS run by a York trust recorded a 60 per cent fall in planned operations this year - due to the demand from Covid.

Data for York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust shows that just over 7,000 operations were carried out between April and September - around 11,000 fewer than the same period the year before.

And the number of people waiting more than six weeks for routine operations increased by 30 per cent this year.

The latest data comes after The Press reported earlier this year that 7,000 residents are expected to face a 12-month or longer wait for non-urgent procedures, including surgery.

Doctors and nurses have been tasked with prioritising patients on the waiting list - to ensure high-risk patients, such as people diagnosed with cancer, are seen first and people with non-life-threatening conditions wait longer.

“The proportion of patients who have got to wait longer - and I’m talking about a year or more - has gone up,” Dr Andrew Lee, from Vale of York Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), told a council meeting in September.

Last week York Hospital said due to growing pressure, it has already had to bring into play the next step in its Covid ‘surge plan’ by releasing more beds and staff to cope with the growing number of cases.

A spokesperson from York Hospital said: “We are working hard to reschedule appointments and operations as soon as possible, however the impact of coronavirus means that for many of our patients there will be a delay, and waiting times will be longer than we would normally expect.

“We appreciate this may be a worrying time for patients and we apologise for these delays as we work to restore our services.

“We are now starting to reinstate our services, however, the coronavirus pandemic continues to affect the services we deliver and how we deliver them. We are continuously risk assessing every patient on our waiting lists to ensure we prioritise patients on the basis of their needs. These decisions are being made by doctors, nurses and other clinical staff in accordance with clinical guidelines to ensure patient safety.”