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By keeping the old, distorting waiting times targets in the new NHS Contract, the Government has undermined its stated intention to tackle excessive waits.
What on earth is going on with the Government's referral-to-treatment waiting times targets?
In the last few weeks we have heard great things from them, showing that they now understand the problems created by the current target regime and want to move forwards. For instance the new Operating Framework says:
The operational standards of 90 per cent for admitted and 95 per cent for non-admitted completed waits as set out in the NHS Constitution remain. In order to sustain the delivery of these standards, trusts will need to ensure that 92 per cent of patients on an incomplete pathway should have been waiting no more than 18 weeks. The referral to treatment (RTT) operational standards should be achieved in each specialty by every organisation and this will be monitored monthly.Operating Framework 2012/13, para 2.31
The new target is very welcome and in a perfect world it would have completely replaced the old targets (which punish Trusts for treating long-waiting patients). But abandoning the old targets would have required amendments to legislation, and invited political criticism that the Government was letting go of waiting times, so it isn't entirely surprising that they have been retained.
This new, better direction of travel was reinforced in the latest edition of The Quarter. It said:
In addition to sustaining and improving performance against the NHS Constitution operational standards, the NHS must also ensure that those still waiting longer than 18 weeks are treated as quickly as possible. As set out in the...