Minister hails end of NHS waiting lists

The end of long waiting times for treatment on the NHS is in sight, ministers have said.

After decades in which millions of patients have languished for many months, and in some cases years, queuing for hospital treatment, the health service is on course to achieve the "historic goal" of eliminating long waits altogether.

By the end of 2008, 60 years after the NHS's foundation in 1948, no patient will have to wait more than 18 weeks from GP referral to hospital admission, Andy Burnham, a Health minister, said yesterday.

NHS managers and doctors agreed yesterday that the target was achievable but warned of a huge task lying ahead. Doubts were raised about the robustness of the data and Tory MPs said a wait of 18 weeks was still too long and would be regarded as "outrageous" on the Continent.

Publishing the first official figures on progress towards the 18-week target, set in 2004, Mr Burnham said they represented a "huge psychological step" for the NHS. "For the first time we are putting the true patient experience before the public - the time waited, not the number waiting," he said.

Almost half of patients [48 per cent] admitted to hospitals in England in March were treated within the target time, up from 35 per cent in a snapshot survey in December 2006, the figures show. Mr Burnham said: "These are excellent figures, of which the NHS should be proud. They show we are well on course to end waiting as we have known it in the NHS's 60th anniversary year. We have made progress right across the country. In every area, waiting lists are falling."

Julian Le Grand, professor of health policy at the London School of Economics and a former adviser to Tony Blair on the NHS, agreed the figures marked a historic moment. "We can now envisage an NHS in which there will be no waiting. It is an unbelievable prospect when you think back to the early years of the Government."

"For around 30-40 years, NHS waiting lists seemed to be permanently stuck. It is probably fair to say that Labour has achieved the reduction by putting in a lot of money, coupled with setting targets. The introduction of choice and competition has also played a part."

"A year ago I was quite sceptical [that the 18-week target would be achieved]. Now I think on average it will be made. I think it's going to happen."

The scale of the challenge is immense. Of four million patients admitted annually to hospitals for routine treatment, over half - more than two million - wait more than 18 weeks. The figures show 12 per cent - almost 500,000 - wait more than a year. The cost of reducing these waits is expected to take a third of the £8bn growth money allocated to the NHS this year - more than £2.5bn.

The new waiting times are measured from the point of GP referral to the point of admission to hospital and include all necessary investigations and tests. They are tougher than the old figures which "hid" the true waiting time by starting the clock only when the hospital gave the patient a date for admission - often months after the GP had referred the patient and tests had been carried out.

Mr Burnham said that from December 2008, the 18-week wait would be a maximum and "the vast majority" of patients would be treated more quickly. "In terms of the patients' experience, that is the end of waiting on the NHS. An 18-week maximum is a reasonable expectation for the health service. This represents for me the culmination of the 10-year programme the Government began in 1997. I don't believe there should be further national targets for the NHS."

Greatest progress towards the target has been made in the East Midlands where 60 per cent of hospital patients are admitted within 18 weeks. The slowest treatment is delivered in the South-east Coast strategic health authority where 33 per cent of patients are admitted within the target time.

Nigel Edwards, policy director of the NHS Confederation, said: "There is optimism within the health service that the target will be met. However, we must not forget that it is probably the most challenging the health service has been asked to take on. Meeting it will require many NHS trusts to completely redesign how patients flow through the system."

The King's Fund chief executive, Niall Dickson, said the NHS had made "huge strides" but that "the biggest threat will come from persistent and underlying financial deficits in some local areas.

The shadow Health Secretary, Andrew Lansley, said: "18 weeks is not sufficiently ambitious for many treatments. It can and should be less. On the Continent, waits of this kind would be regarded as outrageous."