NHS set to miss 18 week waiting times key target
The National Health Service will miss its key target to cut waiting times for treatment to a maximum of 18 weeks by 2008 without additional capacity and more reform, an analysis by the Financial Times shows. Reaching the target will involve either an unprecedented increase in productivity, or more work contracted out to the private sector – or most likely both – according to leading academics.
Patricia Hewitt, the health secretary, hopes to be able to announce this month that the government hit its target in December of having no one in England wait more than six months for an in-patient operation. But that measures only the time between the decision to operate and the operation taking place.
The government’s 18 week target for the NHS is much more ambitious. It covers the whole of treatment, from the first visit to the GP, any diagnostic tests that are needed and the operation.
At the moment, no data exist to measure the total wait from the visit to the GP to operation, as routine data are not collected on how long patients wait for diagnostic procedures, such as MRI scans and the more sophisticated forms of pathology.
In some parts of the country, however, patients can wait six months (26 weeks) or longer for a scan.
And published figures show that the average wait for patients who have actually had an operation has been rising in recent years, not falling. Since 2000, it has gone up by 20 per cent to 7.4 weeks.
Waiting times for a first out-patient appointment have been falling – but far too slowly for the government to hit its 18-week target.
In addition, there are fears that increasing diagnostic capacity may prompt more demand, so that waiting times for tests and scans could rise before they fall – something that has happened in other countries when capacity has been expanded.
“What these figures show,” said Alan Maynard, professor of health economics at York University, “is that of the three elements needed to get to an overall 18-week target, one [the outpatient wait] is falling far too slowly, one [the wait for diagnostics] may well rise before it falls, and the third [the time spent on the waiting list before an operation] is going in the wrong direction.
“Unless something changes radically, the government is going to miss its target.”
The figures are likely to fuel an ongoing debate within the department of health and No.10 Downing Street over how much extra capacity the NHS needs to buy in from the private sector, and how far NHS-run institutions and services can increase their own productivity to hit the target.
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/e39bddfa-7c9f-11da-936a-0000779e2340.html
Patricia Hewitt, the health secretary, hopes to be able to announce this month that the government hit its target in December of having no one in England wait more than six months for an in-patient operation. But that measures only the time between the decision to operate and the operation taking place.
The government’s 18 week target for the NHS is much more ambitious. It covers the whole of treatment, from the first visit to the GP, any diagnostic tests that are needed and the operation.
At the moment, no data exist to measure the total wait from the visit to the GP to operation, as routine data are not collected on how long patients wait for diagnostic procedures, such as MRI scans and the more sophisticated forms of pathology.
In some parts of the country, however, patients can wait six months (26 weeks) or longer for a scan.
And published figures show that the average wait for patients who have actually had an operation has been rising in recent years, not falling. Since 2000, it has gone up by 20 per cent to 7.4 weeks.
Waiting times for a first out-patient appointment have been falling – but far too slowly for the government to hit its 18-week target.
In addition, there are fears that increasing diagnostic capacity may prompt more demand, so that waiting times for tests and scans could rise before they fall – something that has happened in other countries when capacity has been expanded.
“What these figures show,” said Alan Maynard, professor of health economics at York University, “is that of the three elements needed to get to an overall 18-week target, one [the outpatient wait] is falling far too slowly, one [the wait for diagnostics] may well rise before it falls, and the third [the time spent on the waiting list before an operation] is going in the wrong direction.
“Unless something changes radically, the government is going to miss its target.”
The figures are likely to fuel an ongoing debate within the department of health and No.10 Downing Street over how much extra capacity the NHS needs to buy in from the private sector, and how far NHS-run institutions and services can increase their own productivity to hit the target.
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/e39bddfa-7c9f-11da-936a-0000779e2340.html
posted by Dr Search- Principal Consultant at the Search Clinic at
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