Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Waiting times for routine hospital treatment in England hit record levels in September, with more than a million patients waiting for more than one procedure, according to official figures released on Thursday.
Patients were waiting for almost 7.8mn appointments, up from 7.75mn in August, according to NHS England data. The figures also showed that emergency services were under acute pressure, with the number of people waiting more than 12 hours to be admitted for treatment to accident and emergency departments hitting 44,655 in October, an increase of 35 per cent from 33,059 the previous month.
The figures come as a blow to UK prime minister Rishi Sunak, who has pledged to cut waiting lists ahead of the next general election.
A wave of strikes across the NHS since December last year has added to the pressures the health service already faces over the winter months and led to the cancellation of about 1.2mn operations and appointments.
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt this week rejected calls for £1bn in extra funding for the NHS in England to help relieve pressures on hospitals heading into the winter months. Just £100mn of new money has so far been allocated from the Treasury.
NHS England appeared on Wednesday to signal a retreat from its ambition to focus on slashing the number of patients awaiting for elective care. In a letter to hospital bosses, it instead encouraged trusts to devote resources to “high priority” cases.
Professor Nicola Ranger, chief nurse at the Royal College of Nursing, warned on Thursday that the government had “lost control of NHS waiting times”.
Thursday’s data showed that 10,201 people were waiting more than 18 months for routine treatment, up from 8,998 in August, underlining the health service’s continued failure to meet a target to eliminate all 18-month waits by April this year.
An array of key cancer targets were also missed. The two-week urgent referral from a GP to a specialist for suspected cancer was met in just 74 per cent of cases. The target is currently for 93 per cent of patients to see a consultant within a fortnight.
Michelle Mitchell, Cancer Research UK’s chief executive, said: “Years of missed targets have led to worrying delays for far too many people and hard-working NHS staff continue to be let down by the UK government’s failure to invest in cancer services.”
Professor Sir Stephen Powis, NHS national medical director, said he was expecting “another challenging winter in the health service”. He added that increasing demand was compounding the effects of strikes on the service.
In a statement he said: “These strikes have had a significant impact on patients and staff, and created unavoidable financial costs — this is why we have set out actions for local areas to take to protect patient safety, and prioritise urgent and emergency services so that patients receive the best possible care this winter, while the primary focus for elective activity should be on long waits and patients with urgent care and cancer needs.”
The Department of Health has been contacted for comment.
Read the full article here