Health and Social Care Secretary said:
“November was the first month without industrial action for over
a year and we reduced the total waiting list by more than 95,000–
the biggest decrease since December 2010, outside of the
pandemic.
“This shows the progress our fantastic NHS staff can make towards
bringing waiting lists down when they don’t have to contend with
industrial action.
“We want to put an end to damaging strikes once and for all, and
if the BMA Junior Doctors Committee can demonstrate they have
reasonable expectations, I will still sit down with them.”
Background
- The total waiting list fell by approximately 96,000 patients
in November 2023 – the first month without industrial action
since November 2022. This is the largest decrease since December
2010, aside from during the immediate pandemic response (March
2020 – May 2020).
- During the wider pause in industrial action, it fell by
approximately 158,000 patients.
- We are also making good progress on the next target in our
Elective Recovery Plan – eliminating 65-week waits – which have
fallen by nearly 13,000 patients during the pause in strikes.
- Category 2 ambulance response times were over 45 minutes
quicker compared to December 2022.
- Ambulance handover delays have fallen by 9.9% compared to
same week in January 2023. The hours lost to handover delays was
also 21% lower.
- We have prepared for winter earlier than ever before and,
backed by record funding, we are making progress to get 800 new
ambulances on the road and create 5,000 extra permanent hospital
beds, on top of 10,000 hospital at home beds already rolled out -
to free up hospital capacity and cut waiting times.
- A media fact sheet on our Urgent and Emergency Care Recovery
Plan is available here: https://healthmedia.blog.gov.uk/2022/12/08/urgent-and-emergency-care-media-fact-sheet/
- More information on how we are tackling the backlog is
available here: https://healthmedia.blog.gov.uk/2023/05/11/how-were-reducing-the-nhs-backlog/
