NHS stats prompt NHS Confederation response

Confederation responds to generally positive statistics, including cancer backlog drop

The NHS Confederation has delivered a positive verdict following the latest report on wider NHS performance, while also adding a note of caution.

About half of NHS trusts in England currently have no patients on their elective care waiting lists aside from individuals who have chosen to wait longer. Meanwhile, ambulance response rates have improved at their fastest levels in two years.

Furthermore, the 78-week waiting list for elective care has been cut by 90% since September 2021. The overall waiting list, however, has risen to above 7.3 million entries in England. Other notable results include the reduction of the 62-day cancer backlog – for the first time since before the pandemic.

Rory Deighton, director of the NHS Confederation’s acute network, summarised the situation: “Thanks to the phenomenal efforts of its staff, the NHS has considerably slashed the 78-week elective care waiting list from nearly 125,000 procedures in September 2021 to around 10,700 last month.

“Around half of NHS trusts have completely cleared this list apart from for patients who have chosen to wait a little longer, including because they did not take up the NHS’s offer to be treated elsewhere.”

He was also impressed by service delivery in spite of the ongoing challenges: “This progress is despite the NHS facing huge challenges including record emergency care pressures, a very difficult winter which saw high hospital bed occupancy rates, and five months of disruptive industrial action where nearly 60,000 procedures had to be postponed to protect patients.

“While the list has not been completely cleared nationally and the overall waiting list has risen, the NHS has done everything it can to recover its services following the pandemic and it will continue to do so.”

He concluded: “To support this, health leaders urgently need to see how the government will support the NHS with its workforce deficit as this continues to be the single most disabling limitation for why their hardworking teams can’t deliver even more for their local communities.”