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Daily appointment rates have dropped to 16 times lower than pre COVID while several hundreds of thousands of patients have had to be rescheduled.

With staff diverted, social distancing introduced and sick people even more vulnerable - just how are non-emergency hospital services trying to catch up?

Emma Ryan spent a morning in the Cardio and Neuro outpatients department at Leeds General Infirmary to find out what has become the new normal.

On a pre-coronavirus day the department would be heaving from 8am to 6pm with four reception areas, 30 seats and benches in the waiting areas, 27 rooms in operation to see anything up to 500 patients who could have been waiting hours.

Head of Nursing Karen Ledgard with senior sister Judith Shackleton at the entrance to the Cardio and Neuro Outpatients department at LGI.

Now, waiting rooms seats have been removed, there are more staff than patients and just 30 a day are being attended to in six rooms.

Karen Ledgard is the head of nursing for outpatients and manages 150 staff members in 16 different outpatient departments over three sites at Leeds General Infirmary, St James's Hospital and Seacroft Hospital.

She said: "Normally patients might be waiting some time but now it is two to three minutes. We were asking them to travel a long distance, to

From 500 to 30 patients a day - how Leeds outpatients services are catching up after COVID shutdown