Government ministers have admitted that the NHS is performing
fewer procedures today before the Covid-19 pandemic, as waiting
lists continue to grow.
The number of procedures performed in the health service today is
lower than five years ago, with 1.8 million fewer procedures
performed last year than in 2019/20.
Labour’s plan to cut waiting lists will see staff paid extra to
run clinics on evenings and weekends. By getting the NHS working
around the clock, the plan will see an extra two million
appointments for patients to bring down waiting lists. The plan
will cost £1.1 billion and will be paid for by abolishing the
non-dom tax status.
Last week, hospitals were told to cut the number of operations
and appointments by a further 700,000, and focus instead on
making sure ambulances and A&E don’t collapse this winter.
The directive from NHS England makes it even less likely that
Rishi Sunak’s pledge to cut NHS waiting lists will be met.
Waiting lists stand at a record 7.8 million, 600,000 longer than
when the Prime Minister made his pledge in January.
The Government’s failure to end the strikes in the NHS has seen
even fewer patients treated this year so far. The number of
admitted patient procedures done in August, 815,000, was the
lowest since April 2011, other than during lockdown.
, Labour’s Shadow Health and Social Care
Secretary, said:
“The crisis in the NHS will continue and millions of patients
will be left waiting too long unless something changes. We have
got to get the NHS working around the clock if we’re going to
beat the Tory backlog.
“The Government waved the white flag on Rishi Sunak’s pledge to
cut waiting lists last week. The Tories have failed. It will take
a Labour government to get the NHS back on its feet.
“Labour’s plan to cut waiting lists will deliver two million more
appointments a year by paying staff extra to work evenings and
weekends. We will pay for it by abolishing the non-dom tax
status, because patients need treatment more than the wealthiest
need a tax break.”
Ends
Notes:
Annual data on NHS procedures:
Data on the number of procedures carried out in each of the last
13 years was obtained by a written question from Wes Streeting to
the Department of Health and Social Care. The data can be
found here:
https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2023-09-18/200112
Admitted patient procedures estimate:
Monthly data on the number of admitted patient procedures carried
out can be found in the attach spreadsheet. “APC FCEs with a
procedure” refers to the number of admitted patients with a
completed hospital episode who had a procedure done.
The NHS performed 43.9 million procedures in 2019/20 compared to
just 42.1 million last year.
The number of admitted patient procedures done in August,
815,046, was the lowest since pandemic. Discounting 2020 and
2021, it is the lowest figure since April 2011.
Notes on the elective recovery target and industrial
action:
NHS England have announced they are reducing the elective
recovery target for 2023/24 to 103% to 2019/20 levels:
“To cover the costs of industrial action to date we are taking
the following actions which have been agreed with
Government:
…Reducing the elective activity target for 2023/24 to a national
average of 103%, which will now be maintained for the remainder
of the financial year.”
https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/addressing-the-significant-financial-challenges-created-by-industrial-action-in-2023-24/
The original target was 107% of 2019/20 levels:
“At the national level, elective recovery funding will be
allocated to deliver 107% of 2019/20 levels of value-weighted
elective activity.”
https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/PR00021-elective-recovery-fund-technical-guidance.pdf
RTT data shows that 3,524,364 admitted pathways and 13,434,488
unadmitted pathways were completed in 2019/20, for a total of
16,958,853 units of elective activity.
The 4% cut in the target there represents 678,354 units of
elective activity.
https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/rtt-waiting-times/rtt-data-2023-24/#Aug23
