Important information for patients currently on hospital waiting lists

The NHS has been working hard to address the backlogs built up during the COVID pandemic.

To help, the NHS will be contacting patients who have been waiting a long time for hospital treatment. This is to remind people that they can ask to move to a different hospital where they may be seen quicker.

There is now a new website called the Patient Initiated Digital Mutual Aid System, or PIDMAS. If you have been waiting for 40 weeks or more, you can use this website to ask to change hospitals.

If you are eligible, your hospital will send you an SMS text message or a letter, explaining how to ask for a different hospital.

Please do not call the surgery about this, as your GP does not have any information about individual patients.

The hospital will contact you if you are eligible. Please do not contact them either.

You can find more information on hospital websites, like this one from the Royal Surrey County Hospital.