Commenting on NHS England’s Combined Performance Summary for February, Prof John Appleby, Nuffield Trust Chief Economist and Director of Research said:
“It’s encouraging to see many of the indicators on which hospitals are assessed picking up in February from the low they reached after Christmas. The four hour A&E target, number of patients stuck in hospital beds because they can’t go home without support, and proportion of people waiting less than 18 weeks for their treatment all improved slightly. These improvements are against a background of ever-increasing numbers going to A&E (up 3.1% over the last year) and being admitted to hospital (an increase of 2.9% over the last year), so are a tribute to the continuing hard work of NHS staff”.