The curious achievement of 18 weeks
How the 18 week target had the perverse effect of making waiting times worse.
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Is the 18-week target about to blow?
We look at the trends for some key waiting time indicators, to see if pressure is building for an 18-week blow-out. Orthopaedics is struggling, but everything else is holding on so far.
Managing split referral-to-treatment pathways
If your 18 week pathway splits, so that some patients have a diagnostic stage and some don't, then how do you manage waiting times? And how do you plan?
Gooroo research: the best booking tactics
What's the best way to book elective patients into theatre or clinic slots? Is 100% capacity utilisation possible? Is partial booking better? etc...
How should GPs commission?
GPs shouldn't fear commissioning. But nor should they follow in PCTs' footsteps.
Planning: the easy, the hard, and the important
Why planning is so complex, and how you can keep it meaningful.
How to achieve 18 weeks
Waiting time reports are being sent to English Trusts, and here we explain how they were constructed and put them into a national context.
Why plans are always wrong
Why healthcare planning is never accurate, why we shouldn't worry about it, and why it is still useful.
Acute clinical linkages: all mapped out
Which acute services depend on which other acute services? We provide a comprehensive map of 24-hour on-site service interdependency.
The new Operating Framework and 18 week waits
The waiting time target remains 90 per cent within 18 weeks RTT for admitted patients, enforced through the contract. But it takes a bit of work to find that out.