NHS set to meet waiting times target

The NHS is on course to achieve the historic milestone of eliminating long waits for hospital treatment in its 60th anniversary year.

Barring an unforeseen catastrophe such as a flu pandemic, latest figures show that hospitals in England will, by next Christmas, meet the Government's target of a maximum 18-week wait from GP referral for every patient for whom there are no clinical reasons why their treatment should be delayed. The scale of the achievement is remarkable after decades in which long waits were the defining feature of the NHS.

When Labour came to power in 1997, waiting lists stood at 1.2 million and were rising rapidly and hundreds of thousands of patients languished for months, and sometimes years, in queues for treatment.

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Just a year ago, of the four million patients admitted annually to hospitals for routine surgery or treatment, more than half waited more than 18 weeks. Of those, 12 per cent waited more than a year. Yesterday, the figures for March showed that 87 per cent of patients were treated within the 18-week limit, just three percentage points short of the 90 per cent needed to achieve the target (allowing for patients who choose to wait longer, miss their appointments or have clinical reasons for delay).

For outpatients, 93 per cent were treated within 18 weeks, two per cent short of the target of 95 per cent. The March figures showed a more than 10 per cent improvement on February, suggesting the final target is likely to be hit well ahead of the end of year deadline.

Professor John Appleby, the chief economist at the health policy think-tank the King's Fund, said: "It is a fantastic achievement. Every opinion poll and headline [10 years ago] said that if there was one thing the public wanted fixed in the NHS it was waiting times, and they've done it. It is quite staggering."

Professor Appleby added that although the NHS was doing more work and treating more patients than in the past, the secret to cutting waiting lists was often better organisation. He cited the example of a hospital with five orthopaedic surgeons, four of whom had short lists and one of whom had a "ludicrously long" list.

"That hospital appointed a waiting list manager, who pooled the waiting list, sharing the patients among the consultants, which immediately reduced the long waits. It comes down to good management – it is much more to do with the determination of managers to see the thing through," said Professor Appleby.

The Tories criticised the 18-week target as too long and claimed it would be regarded as "outrageous" on the continent.

Professor Appleby said: "I am not sure it is outrageously long. It is a maximum, so the average is likely to be around seven weeks. We know from our own research that patients don't want zero [week] waits and anything up to 10 weeks will not influence their choice of hospital."

The British Medical Association said the figures clearly demonstrated the "hard work" of NHS staff in the "ongoing transformation" of the health service but warned that it was also delaying the treatment of emergency patients.

Jonathan Fielden, the chairman of the BMA's consultants committee, called for the number of consultants to be increased. "Now we need to move further and ensure that the driver for reform is genuine quality – not crude measures of progress," he added.

Dawn Primarolo, the Public Health minister, said: "Reducing patient waiting times is a major achievement. Ten years ago, it was not uncommon to wait 18 months or more for treatment and people died languishing on waiting lists. It is fantastic that almost all patients now begin their treatment within 18 weeks."

Success rate

87

Percentage of patients who are treated within the Government's 18-week limit, just three points short of the Department of Health target.

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