‘The 18-week target is an important hospital milestone,
but it is not a milestone for our overall health
service'
Responding to the Prime Minister's speech today on the
government's health ‘mission' milestone of meeting the 18-week
wait for planned hospital care, Sarah Woolnough, Chief
Executive of The King's Fund, said:
‘NHS waiting times for planned hospital care matter to patients
and the public. The waiting list for operations, tests and
procedures had ballooned long before the pandemic and a large
number of people in this country are feeling the pain and anxiety
of those waits.
‘But hospital waits have never been – and should not be - the
main measure of how the NHS is performing. Patients and the
public are also struggling to get a GP appointment and unable to
get support with social care. The 18-week target is an important
hospital milestone, but it is not a milestone for our overall
health service.
‘The government appears to be reconsidering its earlier
commitment to meet all current NHS targets within one
parliamentary term. They are right to do so, but in choosing to
prioritise a target for hospital care, they are locking the NHS
into a hospital focus that could undermine more fundamental and
long-lasting reform. To seriously drive change, Ministers should
conduct a more wide-ranging and fundamental review of health
service target' so they incentivise the improvements to services
that patients need.1
‘The Prime Minister said today that meeting the 18-week waiting
time target requires bold reform, and that this would be a sign
the NHS is back on its feet and facing the future. In reality,
achieving the decades-old 18-week target would mean that only one
part of the NHS is back on its feet and largely facing the past
not the future. If the NHS becomes too focused on achieving one
hospital care target, it risks undermining efforts to prevent
illness, move more care out of hospitals, and create an NHS ‘fit
for the future'.'
Ends.
Notes to editors
- This week The King's Fund published a blog from our Chief
Analyst and incoming Director of Policy, Siva Anandaciva, on
whether the government can recover key NHS performance targets in
this Parliament. It calls for the government to go further and
conduct a fuller review of NHS targets Can The Government Recover NHS
Performance Standards? | The King's Fund
