Commenting on today’s NHS performance figures, Sarah Scobie, Deputy Director of Research at the Nuffield Trust said:
"Focusing on big waiting lists for treatment makes sense for the government - around half of the public state that better hospital waiting times is one of the most important priorities for the NHS - but this cannot be at the expense of emergency care. Still over 25% of people were waiting more than 4 hours in A&E in April and nearly 45,000 people waited over 12 hours on a trolley because hospital beds were unavailable.
“The anticipated Urgent and Emergency Care plan needs to tackle this head on so fewer patients have to endure dangerously long A&E waits. The improvements we have seen in ambulance response times are to be expected as the NHS emerges from a difficult winter.
“The number of people facing extremely long waits for a hospital appointment has reduced, but progress in bringing down the overall waiting list is stalling. The government is hoping that initiatives like expanding use of Advice and Guidance in general practice will help, so a big question as ministers prepare the 10 year health plan is whether things will get back on track with driving down the backlog."
Notes to editors
- The Nuffield Trust is an independent health think tank. We aim to improve the quality of health care in the UK by providing evidence-based research and policy analysis and informing and generating debate www.nuffieldtrust.org.uk.
- For all queries or to arrange an interview, contact our press office: press.office@nuffieldtrust.org.uk; or 020 7462 0500.