The worst waiting list for nearly a decade

The total number of patients in England on the waiting list – for routine procedures such as hip or knee replacements, hernias or cataract removals has grown over 10% (c400,000 patients) since the start of 2018 and now tops nearly 4.3 million*

Worse still is that almost 1 in 8 of these patients have been waiting over 18 weeks, which was the pledge of the NHS Constitution. With over half a million waiting such long times and continuing to grow 2.75% a month since January 2018, and over 100,000 since the same time last year, many patients are already turning to the private sector in a bid to help themselves

Two thirds of all hospitals are finding it impossible to treat 92% of patients within the supposed 18-week maximum waiting time, which is one of the NHS’s key performance targets.

NHS governance bodies seek solutions

NHS England and NHS Improvement have written to hospitals and clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) telling them to produce plans urgently to tackle the growing backlog

The Royal College of Surgeons said bringing in the private sector was “necessary in the short-term to benefit patients”, given the number of people waiting

Are waiting lists a short-term issue or a result of prolonged austerity?

Regardless of what performance metric is used, it is clear that the management of elective waiting lists has worsened over time. This is evident when looking at the moving annual trend which has worsened almost 45% over the last 5 years, from 2.5 million to 3.7 million patients waiting for treatment

February 2016 was the last time the NHS met their core performance target of seeing 92% of patients within 18 weeks, with the trend dropping off dramatically since then

Some patients are even waiting over a year for treatment, a 10 fold (1000%) increase for an issue that was under strong control just five years ago

Do all specialities and treatments struggle the same?

Almost a quarter of all patients are waiting for orthopaedic and ophthalmic treatment, and depending upon where you live this could mean waiting over 18 weeks on average 18% of the time, with a range by individual hospital of 0% to 46% (almost 1 in 2 patients) in Milton Keynes

Where to seek the lowest wait

There are clearly lots of Hospitals who not only meet the national standard for wait times, but exceed it, and continue to deliver the same performance levels month in month out

Below shows the latest performance result for the Top and Bottom 10 trusts in England

Over the last 5 years, 70% of those hospitals in the Top 10 have never missed managing their waiting list targets, but more worrying is those hospitals that do struggle to meet the standard have been in decline for over 2 years in many cases, with few signs of improvement

As fewer hospitals meet the national target (120 five years ago, to just 48 as of June 2018) then the calls for the private sector to support will continue to be heard moving forward

*4.3m is estimated after accounting for 5 NHS trusts who failed to submit wait list data. Original article published in the Guardian 31^st Aug 2018

#NHS #WAITINGLIST #CHANGE

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