Patient groups criticise Hunt for ditching NHS waiting time targets

[Northerner]

Jeremy Hunt is facing a backlash from patient groups over his decision to let hospitals flout key NHS waiting time targets next year.

The health and social care secretary has told NHS trusts they do not need to meet standards that require them to treat 95% of A&E patients within four hours and 92% of people awaiting non-urgent care within 18 weeks.

Hunt axed the targets earlier this week in the 2018-19 edition of the mandate (pdf), which is the set of priorities and instructions he gives the NHS every year. He said he made the decision because “a number of hospitals [are] struggling to meet these core performance standards overall”.

His abandonment of the NHS’s two most totemic targets will force patients to suffer in pain as they face longer delays for treatment and could jeopardise their recovery, the Patients Association warned.

https://www.theguardian.com/society...ticise-hunt-ditching-nhs-waiting-time-targets

 

[Amigo]

Jeremy Hunt is facing a backlash from patient groups over his decision to let hospitals flout key NHS waiting time targets next year.

The health and social care secretary has told NHS trusts they do not need to meet standards that require them to treat 95% of A&E patients within four hours and 92% of people awaiting non-urgent care within 18 weeks.

Hunt axed the targets earlier this week in the 2018-19 edition of the mandate (pdf), which is the set of priorities and instructions he gives the NHS every year. He said he made the decision because “a number of hospitals [are] struggling to meet these core performance standards overall”.

His abandonment of the NHS’s two most totemic targets will force patients to suffer in pain as they face longer delays for treatment and could jeopardise their recovery, the Patients Association warned.

https://www.theguardian.com/society...ticise-hunt-ditching-nhs-waiting-time-targets

The two week cancer target is being stretched and manipulated too. A friend of ours was referred on the 2 week rule for suspected bowel cancer and has been told by the hospital they can’t fulfill it! Very worrying 😳

 

[mikeyB]

It’s not just that the targets are being abandoned, there is now no way of finding how hospitals are coping. With those perameters removed, there is no basis for anyone to criticise the system. It’s a very simple way of pretending everything is just fine.

 

[Northerner]

It’s not just that the targets are being abandoned, there is now no way of finding how hospitals are coping. With those perameters removed, there is no basis for anyone to criticise the system. It’s a very simple way of pretending everything is just fine.

Indeed. If they thought that there were likely to be improvements in the figures for next year then they wouldn't have abandoned the targets