Referral to Treatment - NHS patients waiting "unacceptably" long time

A recent report by the Commons Public Accounts Committee (PAC) revealed that patients, including cancer patients, are being forced to wait an "unacceptably" long time between referrals and their first treatment.

Failure to meet target

The report revealed that just 38% of NHS hospitals meet the 62-day standard from referral to treatment for cancer patients. Trusts have now failed to meet this target for almost three-and-a-half years.

The report also revealed that the waiting list for planned care has grown by 1.5 million since March 2013 - from 2.7 million to 4.2 million - and concluded that the "impact on individuals" of long waiting times are being "ignored".

PAC chair, Meg Hillier MP, said:

"It is unacceptable that less than half of NHS trusts and foundation trusts (trusts) meet the 18-week waiting times standard for elective treatment,

"We were troubled by the Department’s and NHS England’s approach to waiting times which seems to be characterised by gaps in understanding of: patient harm, hospital capacity and what is driving demand."

Dr Moira Fraser-Pearce, director of policy and campaigns at Macmillan Cancer Support, added:

"For 41 months in a row, the target for the time it takes people to start cancer treatment following an urgent referral from their GP has been breached."

Trolley waits and record figures

New data from NHS England also shows that there has been a massive rise in the number of trolley waits - the time A&E patients spend on trolleys or chairs while a bed is found for them - throughout the summer.

The figures show that 119,320 patients experienced trolley waits of four hours or more throughout May and June 2019. This is a 63% rise from the same two months in 2018, and is almost three times the number recorded in May and June 2015, when there were 42,589 trolley waits. Furthermore, 471 patients spent more than 12 hours on a trolley in June this year – 4.8 times more than last year when there were 99.

The report also revealed record numbers of patients waiting for planned treatment such as knee operations, with a total of 245,079 NHS patients forced to wait longer than six months. In May this year, only 87% of patients were treated within the 18-weeks, falling shy of the 92% target.

Meanwhile, a record number of all patients waiting for treatment was recorded at 4.39 million and this figure is expected to rise to around 4.5 million once data from all trusts are taken into account.

The report also highlighted the fact that just three major A&E departments met the four hour target to treat or discharge patients in June this year.

Improvements

However, the new figures do show improvements when it comes to long waits of more than twelve months. A total of 1,032 patients waited more than a year for treatment in May 2019, down from 3,100 in May 2018.

Director of policy and strategy at NHS Providers, Miriam Deakin, said: “Historically, the summer months have been a time of year when the NHS could catch its breath and recover performance following high demand over the winter.

“The monthly performance figures, including those released today, show that this is no longer the case.”

Shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth added: “While the Health Secretary plays Tory leadership games, patients continue to suffer deteriorating care.”

Lesley Herbertson, Partner and Clinical Negligence solicitor here at Potter Rees Dolan, comments:

This report makes for a very disappointing and concerning read. Not only are patients having to suffer prolonged symptoms and/or anxiety about their condition whilst awaiting treatment, it is possible that their overall health is being prejudiced. For example, whilst on the one hand there are excellent treatments available that can actively tackle cancer, the effectiveness of the same could well be lost as a result of a delay in starting that treatment.

Lesley is a Partner and Solicitor within the Clinical Negligence department here at Potter Rees Dolan. Should you wish to speak to Lesley about delays in treatment or indeed any other aspect of this article, please contact us on 0161 237 5888 or email Lesley directly.