_

_

_

_

_

 

07Dec07

100,000 PEOPLE STILL WAITING OVER A YEAR FOR HOSPITAL TREATMENT

Today the Government published the latest NHS 'referral to treatment' statistics. These show that almost 100,000 people (one in ten) are still waiting over a year for treatment.

Commenting on the announcement, parliamentary candidate Mark Versallion said, "This highlights the contrast between the impression the government spins to the public and the reality. Labour have presided over an ever worsening situation in the NHS for over ten years and far from 'saving the NHS' it is in many ways a lot worse. Imagine having to wait more than a year for treatment... and yet there are almost 100,000 people doing just that.

"To make things worse the Government has been found to be using smoke and mirrors to hide its failure, as only 30 per cent of all hospital treatment applies to the waiting list measure. In other words they can take as long as they like on the other 70 per cent with impunity."

Shadow Secretary of State for Health, Andrew Lansley, said, “The Government claims it’s making progress on reducing needless waiting, but today’s figures emphasise that they are failing. The Government has had to move the goal-posts for its 18 week waiting time target, yet nearly 100,000 NHS patients are still being forced to wait more than a year for their treatment.

“The Government’s 18 week target only applies to 30 per cent of hospital activity anyway. There is a real risk that over the next year the drive to meet the 18 week target will distort clinical priorities further and harm patients.

“We need a health service in which professionals are freed from central targets and able to respond to the needs of patients while being accountable for the quality and outcomes they deliver.”

Notes to Editors
Figures released 07Dec07 show that:
- 19,441 out of 224,601 patients who were admitted to hospital waited more than a year for treatment.
- 70,059 out of 804,544 patients who did not need admission waited more than a year for treatment.
This is a total of 89,500 patients out of 1,029,145 waiting more than a year for treatment, almost 1 in 10. Source: www.performance.doh.gov.uk/rtt/commissioner.html.

Moving the goal-posts
On 8 November 2007, the Government moved the goalposts on its 18 week waiting time target. It briefed the BBC that it may amend the target for NHS treatment to allow for "clinically justified" delays. Health Minister, Ben Bradshaw said the target may apply to 90% of patients (BBC News Online).

18 week target only applies to 30 per cent of hospital activity
The Government’s 18 week target only applies to elective admissions to hospital and there are separate targets for cancer. The Department of Health's Hospital Episode Statistics tables show total Finished Consultant Episodes (FCE) by specialty: www.hesonline.nhs.uk/Ease/servlet/ContentServer?siteID=1937&categoryID=207.

In total, there were 14,423,506 FCEs in 2005-06. The column titled ‘waiting list’ is assumed to cover elective admission methods. The Department of Health defines it as ‘Episodes with an elective admission method indicating that the admission was from a waiting list (codes 11 and 12). Planned admissions (code 13) are not included’. On this basis, 30.3 per cent of all FCEs were elective and 69.7 per cent were non-elective in 2005-06. Subtracting, cancer FCEs from total elective FCEs gives 4,301,066 FCEs covered by the 18 week target. This means that just 29.8 per cent of hospital activity is covered by the 18 week waiting list target.