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Waiting times recovered surprisingly well in September, especially in Orthopaedics which has received extra attention during the national waiting list initiative. Policy makers must now decide whether to extend the amnesty on perverse targets beyond the end of November, and allow hospitals to continue treating their longest-waiting patients without restriction.
This major upgrade to Gooroo Planner makes make it much easier to create, update and automate comprehensive capacity models, especially around week-by-week planning and theatre capacity.
The Health Foundation and Nuffield Trust kindly invited me to speak at the QualityWatch 2014 conference in London. This is what I said.
There are three ways to model service changes in Gooroo Planner: simplistic, simple, and comprehensive. We look at the pros and cons of each method.
It is good news that waiting times are being reduced for mental health. But the proposed targets for IAPT services could mean that some people wait even longer.
The English NHS pulled out the stops in August with a major effort to clear the long-wait backlog. But it didn't work. The long waits position got significantly worse right across the board.
The penalty for treating a long waiting patient is four times bigger than the penalty for letting them wait. But that isn't the end of the story: because of the target tolerances and how waiting times dynamics work, the perverse incentives are massively bigger than that.
The annual planning round is a bit stale. By transforming planning into a continuous and live management process, we can make sure it changes real life for the better. In a speech to the Association of Professional Healthcare Analysts, I explained how this also creates an important new operational-facing role for analysts.
NHS waits are on the rise - but understanding why is a little more tricky. Here's a handy guide. (First published at openDemocracy)
The health secretary has committed to ending perverse waiting list management. Yet it continues, fuelled by perverse incentives.