RIP 18 weeks – how can it be resuscitated?
It's a recurring problem, and it needs a recurring solution. But all that's on offer is short-term fixes.
Filter blog posts
You can filter out our blog posts below by a category relevant to yourself.
Understanding discrepancies when tracking long-waiters against plan
How many patients are expected to breach the target every week? It's a good question. To answer it, you need to understand how patients are being scheduled.
England now permanently breaching 18 weeks
The English waiting list grew more rapidly than expected in April, and it is now unlikely that the 18 week target will ever be achieved again. Unless there is a massive recurring and non-recurring effort, that is.
More and better analysis of local ’18 weeks’ pressures
We are launching better analyses of your local 18 weeks pressures, to take advantage of new data, improve the analysis of medical specialties, and allow easier comparison with your previous month's waiting list.
The possible death of 18 weeks
(First published in Roy Lilley’s nhsManagers newsletter) The English NHS breached the 18-week waiting times target in March, but the bald statistics just don’t give a sense of how bad... Read more
Why 18 weeks might never be achieved again
England might breach the 18 week waiting times target again in April. After that, it might be gone for good.
Worst ever breach of England’s 18-weeks target
It was another bad month for England's 18 week waiting times - the worst performance since the "incomplete pathways" target was introduced in 2012, powered by the largest waiting list since January 2008.
Why planning should be part of performance reporting
Most performance reports tell you what happened, but not whether it was enough. That's a pretty big omission, and the only way to fix it is to have a plan and track your progress against it. What does that look like? And how do you actually do it?
The cost of theatres
How late is a "late start" in your operating theatres? If I told you they probably cost something like £20 a minute, how late is a "late start" now?
The perfect partners: whole-hospital planning without breaches
Lower costs, more activity, and less fire-fighting. That's the power of planning electives and non-electives together, to achieve access standards for both, right across the hospital.