27.07.16
Short-term RTT fix unlikely as nearly 1,000 patients wait over a year for referral
NHS waiting times for referral to treatment (RTT) are growing and are unlikely to improve in the short term, according to the latest report to NHS Improvement (NHSI).
Papers published ahead of the regulator’s board meeting tomorrow show that 996 patients had been waiting over a year for referral in May 2016, a significant increase from 133 in May 2015.
There were 196 patients waiting for over a year at King’s College Hospital NHS FT and 134 at University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust.
In addition, eight providers did not submit figures, meaning the true amount could be even higher.
A report to the NHS England board, which is also meeting tomorrow, said: “It will be challenging to recover RTT performance in the short term.”
NHS emergency medicine is also facing challenges, with NHS England failing to meet its targets for replying to ambulance targets and A&E patient waiting times in May 2016.
NHS England announced recently that it is replacing national fines for elective and A&E services which fail to meet performance targets with trust specific incentives, as part of a bid to get its finances under control.
The NHSI report suggested the figures were partly due to an elective waiting list at 3.48 million, an 11.73% increase from the previous year.
Overall, 91.56% of patients were seen within 18 weeks, below the 92% target, which has not been met since November last year.
In addition, 1.41% of patients waited more than six weeks for a diagnostic test, above the performance target of 1%, although this was an improvement on 1.8% in May 2015.
Providers also failed two cancer waiting times – there were 92% of patients being seen for suspected breast cancer within two weeks, against a 93% target, and 81.42% of patients receiving treatment within 62 days, against an 85% target. This target has only been met for one month (December) in the past year.
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