Reducing NHS waiting lists in the wake of COVID

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death for men in the UK and second most for women. During the first lockdown from March 2020, elective cardiac procedures and outpatient consultations were postponed and many appointments have not yet been rescheduled. In addition, those who were suffering from heart conditions did not see their GP or come to hospital. The resulting backlog presents a huge challenge.

In this podcast, first published in March 2021, we talk to cardiologist Ramesh Nadarajah and computer scientist Jessica Enright about a meeting at the Newton Gateway to Mathematics, which brought together clinicians and mathematicians to try to tackle the problem.

The three-day brainstorming session, part of a programme of activities by the Virtual Forum for Knowledge Exchange in Mathematical Sciences, developed potential solutions that could also help reduce waiting lists for other conditions — and demonstrated the astonishing power mathematics can have even when you least expect it.

This podcast, and the accompanying article, were produced as part of our collaboration with the Isaac Newton Institute (INI), which we talked about in our last episode.  You can find out more of our work with the INI here.