A target 8.5 week average RTT wait?
Will one kind of "managing to the target" simply be replaced by another?
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Will one kind of "managing to the target" simply be replaced by another?
Now you can edit week-by-week activity directly in the Profiling screen, and watch waiting times rise and fall as you work. This and other goodies in the latest upgrade.
The Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) kindly invited me to speak at their Policy Forum. My case was not so much that 85% is the wrong answer, but that bed occupancy is the wrong question.
The best way for the next government to reduce waiting times will be steadily and patiently, by keeping up with demand. Not with a blitz of waiting list initiatives.
August saw a sudden increase in elective waiting times, putting at risk the NHS Long Term Plan's promise of choice at six months.
At the end of July, less than 49 per cent of hospital services were achieving the 18 week RTT target.
Waiting times improved in June, but the underlying waiting list pressures kept growing as activity remained short of demand.
Elective waiting times have risen from 22 weeks to 23 weeks over the last 14 months, and there is still no end in sight. The target, of course, is just 18 weeks.
The arguments for 'going dark' look weak, compared with the damage to official statistics and public confidence in them.
English waiting times will continue to grow, indefinitely, until the NHS gets closer to keeping up with demand.