The government will not meet its ambition of getting NHS waiting times down to 18 weeks without investing in primary care, children’s services and mental health, NHS leaders have warned. Healthcare chiefs also warned there is a “fundamental mismatch” between demand for services and what the NHS is able to do. The boss of a trust that provides community and mental health services warned children are being “let down” amid “enormous” waiting lists.
“It’s really disappointing to see how absent children are, first of all in terms of policy, and I couldn’t account more strongly the extent to which I think they are being let down collectively, “Waiting lists are enormous and are simply growing as things stand...
there is a fundamental mismatch between demand and capacity as things stand,” they said. The warnings come after the Labour government outlined its ambition to ensure 92 per cent of patients receive care within 18 weeks within the next five years. The target was first introduced under Tony Blair’s government and it was last hit in February 2016.
To meet the target, it has pledged to deliver an extra two million NHS appointments a year. Currently, the waiting list stands at 7.6 million, with the latest figures showing some 282,664 people in England had been waiting more than a year to start routine hospital treatment at the end of August.
The poll found almost three-quarters of trust leaders, 71 per cent, and all bosses from acute specialist and ambul.