NHS 'is failing to reduce waiting times'

The NHS is failing to increase the number of patients it treats fast enough to meet government targets for cutting waiting times, despite the investment of an extra £5bn over the last year.

The gloomy findings were revealed in an interim report presented to the NHS Modernisation Board yesterday setting out where the extra cash for 2001-2 has been spent.

They demonstrate that the critical problem now facing the NHS is not shortage of money but shortage of capacity – of doctors, nurses and beds.

The report shows that £1.9bn went on pay rises for staff, £550m on hiring new doctors, nurses and therapists, and £1bn on drugs – representing an increase of almost 12 per cent in the drugs bill in 12 months.

The remainder went on new buildings and capital equipment, such as brain and body scanners, and settling clinical negligence claims, which were up by £150m.

The report, by the NHS's director of finance, concluded: "The extra investment has been deployed to good effect. The added resources have helped expand capacity and begun to change the way care is delivered to patients."

Alan Milburn, the Secretary of State for Health, said yesterday there were no short-term fixes and decades of under-investment could not be put right overnight. He said: "It is important we can demonstrate where the investment has gone in the NHS and that there have been benefits."

He revealed the number of patients treated had risen by 50,000 for in-patients (1 per cent) and by 150,000 for out-patients (1.3 per cent) over the year.

This is the lowest increase in activity for a decade, according to figures obtained by the Kings Fund, the health policy think tank, and well below the 5 per cent-a-year annual growth that experts estimate is needed to meet government targets.

Mr Milburn said the figures were due in part to the fact modern treatment meant some patients who previously required surgery were being dealt with in the community. Efforts were being made to quantify treatment of this kind.