Waiting times for NHS planned care – our response
What is planned care?
Planned care, also known as ‘elective’ care, is treatment that people decide to have to help manage a health problem, rather than emergency treatment for an urgent medical condition, or following a serious accident for example. People are usually referred for planned care by their GP or other healthcare professional.
Planned care covers many different treatments. It also includes diagnostics which are tests that are carried out to detect diseases such as cancer and other serious medical conditions. Most planned care treatments are done as day cases, where patients leave hospital on the same day. Sometimes patients have to stay in hospital overnight or a bit longer if necessary.
Healthwatch reponse
Commenting on the latest NHS data on planned care, Louise Ansari, Chief Executive at Healthwatch England said:
"The incoming government has rightly placed getting on top of the elective backlog at the centre of its plans for recovering NHS performance. The review into NHS performance provides a welcome opportunity to understand the causes of poor performance and chart a path to improvement."
"The statistics show that there is still a mountain to climb to provide all patients in England with timely care. Progress on reducing the overall size of the waitlist has stalled, with numbers above 7.6 million appointments."
With only 59.1% of patients receiving care within 18 weeks of referral, the NHS is still far behind its target for 92% of patients being seen in this timeframe. Furthermore, more than 300,000 patients have waited more than a year for elective care.
"We remain concerned that headline progress on waitlists may mask large inequalities when it comes to waiting for care. Our research has shown that those who are poorer, live with a disability or are from an ethnic minority background wait longer for care and often feel less supported while they wait. We have called on NHS England and NHS trusts to collect and publish data on disparities in waiting times, experiences, outcomes and improvements that diverse groups are reporting.
"NHS organisations also need to provide more support for those waiting for care. This should include providing pain relief and mental and physical support, improving communication with patients on how long they will wait, and giving people contact details to notify NHS teams if their condition deteriorates. Alongside reducing waitlist size and length, these basic steps are vital to improving people’s experiences and satisfaction with NHS services.”
My Planned Care
Helpful information for patients waiting for clinical opinion, treatment, or surgery.
