Commenting on the latest monthly NHS performance data, Sarah
Woolnough, Chief Executive of The King’s Fund, said:
‘Thanks in part to earlier planning and increased capacity, NHS
performance is not deteriorating compared to last winter. This
improvement is welcome news for patients, but we should not
become desensitised to the fact that the waiting time standards
set by the government – and expected by the public – are being
consistently missed.
‘It has been over eight years since the A&E target of 95% of
people being seen within four hours has been met nationally. And
while some progress has been made in reducing the waiting list
for routine care, it still stands at 7.6 million – a figure that
would have been startling a decade ago.
‘In the past few days, the Prime Minister said that one of his
key pledges, to improve waiting list performance, has been
missed, pointing to strikes as the reason this commitment was not
met. While industrial action undoubtedly impacts patients and the
NHS, in truth, long waits for hospital care have been many years
in the making.
‘The NHS is taking action to increase capacity, including opening
more beds, expanding virtual wards, and to improve handovers from
ambulances to hospitals. But month after month we see that
patients are still struggling to access NHS services. There are
no quick-fixes to this long-term issue, but the solutions will
lie in bolstering out-of-hospital care such as primary, community
and social care services, making health and care a more
attractive place to build a career, and ramping up efforts to
help people live healthier lives.’
