Boris Johnson promises ‘tough’ NHS targets amid row over care backlog

PM promises new tougher targets for the NHS despite warnings from healthcare leaders

Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Chancellor Rishi Sunak (Gareth Fuller/PA) (PA Wire)

Boris Johnson has promised “tough” new targets for the NHS, despite warnings from healthcare leaders over setting “unrealistic” goals.

The prime minister said during a visit to a hospital in Kent the government was working with the NHS to set “some tough targets.”

His comments come after the government has delayed the publication of its long awaited plan for tackling the backlog in care which has hit 6 million in November.

It follows reports that the Treasury has refused to sign off on the plan without firmer targets for getting waiting lists down.

The news has prompted warnings from NHS Confederation, which represents all NHS trusts, over the government setting “unrealistic” targets for services.

Visiting the Kent Oncology Centre at Maidstone Hospital with Chancellor Rishi Sunak, Mr Johnson hinted new announcements would be made around tougher cancer targets this week however did not clearly set out any new targets.

He said: “we’re now working with the NHS to set some tough targets so that we are able to deliver for patients and also for the taxpayer. As you know, we’re putting huge sums in...

”But we want everywhere in the country to match that success. So what we’re saying is we want the vast majority of people who think they may have cancer to have a diagnosis... confirming that they do or that they don’t have cancer within 28 days. So we want three in four to have that.

“And we’re also saying that by March of (20)23, by spring next year, we want nobody to be waiting more than two months. Those are very tough targets, we’ve got to make sure that the NHS delivers them.”

The target for 75 per cent of patients would get a diagnosis within 28 days already exists target and was set out by the NHS in 2019 and 2020.

Currently the NHS standard is for 85 per cent of patients to have their first cancer treatment within two months.

When asked to clarify the cancer targets referenced by the prime minister, a spokesperson for the Department for Health and Social Care said: “The target is to return the backlog of people waiting more than 2 months for cancer treatment to pre-pandemic levels by March 2023.”

Last month the NHS’ cancer lead Cally Palmer admitted it would not hit the previous target to return to pre-pandmic levels on this measure by March 2022.

Ministers have faced criticism that they have still not released the full national recovery plan for dealing with the backlog in hospital waiting lists which many had expected on Monday.

Labour said the country is “paying the price” for the the crisis over Mr Johnson’s leadership following the interim Sue Gray report into lockdown parties in Downing Street.

Former health secretary Jeremy Hunt, who now chairs the Commons Health and Social Care Committee, said the delay to the plan was “extremely disappointing”.

“There appears to be an argument about targets which are the last thing the NHS needs: instead they should be discussing where we are going to find the 4,000 additional doctors needed to address the backlog,” he said.

The claims come amid reports of heightened tensions between No 10 and the Treasury, with suspicions among MPs that Mr Sunak is manoeuvring for a leadership challenge if Mr Johnson is ousted.

Last week the Chancellor publicly distanced himself from Mr Johnson’s attack on Sir Keir for failing to prosecute Jimmy Savile when he was director of public prosecutions – a claims that has been widely discredited.

Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, who previously advised Tony Blair, said the situation in Downing Street was reminiscent of the end of the Blair years.

“Increasingly getting the sense that Johnson now faces the same (but more intense and short term) challenge Tony Blair had in his third term,” he tweeted.

Namely that HMT is loath to agree to any No 10 plans involving money as the Chancellor sees these as opportunistic and wasted on a dying administration.”

Mr Taylor said it was “frustrating” that the recovery plan was not yet out and warned against any attempt to impose “unrealistic” targets on the health service.

“It is really important that we are accountable for public money that is spent, but the danger is that, if you take on targets that are unrealistic, you end up skewing clinical priorities in pursuit of those targets,” he told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.

Health Secretary Sajid Javid meanwhile denied the Treasury was responsible for holding up the plan and said any targets would be based on clinical need.