Waiting times- NHS patients still face long delays for treatment

Half of NHS patients are waiting longer than the Government's 18-week target for treatment after seeing their GP. Some people have waited more than two years before receiving treatment , a Department of Health study found, but the department said this involved only 1 per cent of patients.

The figures come from a study of patient "journeys" in eight pilot areas to look at whether a series of government targets is delivering faster treatment times.

The 18-week target from GP to treatment is meant to be met by 2008. But according to the study, some patients face delays of up to six months for diagnostic scans before they can even start to receive treatment.

The Health minister Andy Burnham admitted that one quarter of the 15 most common diagnostic procedures, such as hearing tests and ultrasounds, were taking longer than 13 weeks to conduct.

The Government target is that all diagnostic waits should be no more than13 weeks by March 2007, and six weeks by March 2008.

At the end of April this year, 799,594 patients were waiting for the most common diagnostic procedures, with the average wait being seven weeks.

About 20,000 people were waiting between 13 and 26 weeks, while 30,000 people faced delays of between 26 and 52 weeks. About 40,000 people were waiting more than a year.

Mr Burnham said: "We have put all the pieces out, but there still needs to be some further work to put them all together. This is certainly not an exercise in spin, it is an exercise in honesty. We are saying this is the scale of the challenge."

The Liberal Democrat health spokesman, Steve Webb, said: "These figures show unacceptably large regional variations. Too many people in too many parts of the country are waiting too long for tests.

"Money for diagnostics is already tight and will be even more at risk by 2008 when extra NHS funding stops, regardless of whether this new target is met."

Professor Janet Husband, president of the Royal College of Radiologists, said it was "gratifying" to see that progress had been made, but some people were still facing "lengthy waits". She said efforts would continue to ensure an efficient and effective service.

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Health Direct is pleased at the “honesty” of Health minister Andy Burnham, but he acknowledges that he still hasn’t worked out how he will achieve the 18 week total wait target by 2008.

As Health Direct pointed out on Friday, January 06, 2006 Labour ministers promises on ambitious 18 week maximum wait for surgery the 18 week process involves moving patients through three stages. From the initial visit to the GP, the patient has to go to a first outpatient appointment, then through any diagnostic tests that are needed and finally on to the operation itself once a decision to admit has been taken.

But an analysis of Department of Health data by the Financial Times shows that the government will miss its target without additional capacity and reform of the way the service operates.

Referring to the latest waiting times published in January 2006 "What these figures show," according to Alan Maynard, professor of health economics at the University of York, "is that of the three elements needed to get to the overall 18-week target, one is falling far too slowly, one is unknown but may well rise before it falls, and the third - the time spent on the waiting list before an operation - is actually going in the wrong direction.

"Unless something changes radically, the government is going to miss its target".

6 months on and with 17,000 NHS staff since having their jobs axed Professor Maynard’s comments are as valid now as they were then.