NHS struggling to keep up with demand

Commenting on the latest monthly NHS performance statistics, Nuffield Trust Deputy Director of Research Sarah Scobie said: 

“Today’s statistics are a stark reminder that despite the continued hard work of staff, the NHS is still struggling to keep up with demand. However, there is some positive news for access to cancer care, as in July the proportion of patients being treated within 31 days of a decision to treat was the highest in three years.

“The NHS planned treatment waiting list rose again in July, to over 7.4 million, but we know that the overall number can only show a partial picture. Our analysis has revealed that thousands of cases are removed from this list each month for reasons including administrative exercises like data cleaning. There is a lack of transparency around the different reasons why people might be coming off the list which undermines how useful it is as a measure of progress.

“Meanwhile, the government wants to make it easier for patients to see how services are performing through the new trust league tables published this week. However, in their current form the tables are limited in how they help us to understand how good the care is at local hospitals, and some measures patients would find important are missing from the calculations, including outcomes of operations. If patients are to take control of their own care, there needs to be better access to the information that really matters.”