Young lives 'blighted by delays in NHS care' as waiting times rise

82% of NHS trusts questioned were struggling to meet demand (Image: Getty) A “forgotten generation” of youngsters are having their lives blighted by NHS care delays, a damning report warns. A survey of 134 healthcare trusts by NHS Providers found an overwhelming 97 percent had seen demand for children and young people’s services rise since the pandemic. Some 86 percent had seen waiting times for initial assessments increase and 82 percent said they were unable to meet demand.

Increased waiting times were impacting young patients across a range of services including paediatric surgery, health visiting, speech and language therapy, hearing tests and neurodevelopment services. function loadOvpScript(){let el=document.createElement('script');el.

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Log('[Load] OVP tcfLoaded',new Date())})}},1500)}) One trust reported that waits for children's autism assessments had increased.