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Figures show NHS is frequently missing cancer targets, ambulance targets and routine surgery targets (14 August 2015)

Date: 14/08/2015
Duncan Lewis, Legal News Solicitors, Figures show NHS is frequently missing cancer targets, ambulance targets and routine surgery targets

New figures show that NHS patients’ lives are being put at risk, as delays in cancer scans, surgery delays and missed ambulance targets worsen.

Delays for some procedures have reached their worst level for seven years, the Daily Mail reports.

On Wednesday (12/08/15) the NHS published data on waiting times for ambulances, A&E, cancer scans and treatment, routine operations and “bed blocking” – which occurs when a vulnerable patient cannot be discharged from a hospital because of a shortage in care home places for recuperation.

The figures show that, in the last three months, a total of 26,800 cancer patients waited longer than two weeks for tests, after being urgently referred by their GP – and around 6,000 patients subsequently diagnosed with cancer did not start their treatment for at least two months. The figures are the worst for six years.

Currently there are 3.4 million NHS patients waiting for hip, knee and other non-urgent procedures – and around 5 million elderly patients could not be discharged from hospital after operations and treatment because a care home place had not been arranged.

In July, more than 15,500 patients waited longer than six weeks for MRI scans, X-rays and other cancer diagnostic tests – a four-fold increase within five years.

In the last three months, more than 337,000 patients waited longer than four hours in A&E units for treatment – including 130 patients left on trolleys for more than 12 hours.

NHS data is usually released over a period of time – monthly or quarterly – and Labour has said the release of so much data in one day represents an attempt by the government “to hurry out bad news”.

Labour’s Shadow Health Secretary Andy Burnham accused ministers of “cynical news management” by changing the way they published the statistics.

“However they try to present it, these figures show that Tory health policies are failing patients,” Mr Burnham said.

“The waiting list is at a seven-year high, A&E departments are in crisis and the cancer treatment target has been continually missed.”

Head of policy at Cancer Research UK, Emma Greenwood, warned that thousands of patients were being failed by the NHS missing its key cancer targets.

“England’s cancer survival already lags behind comparable countries – and will only get worse if the target continues to be breached.

“This cannot be allowed to continue. These breaches have become a trend and they are worsening,” she said.

NHS England’s National Medical Director, Professor Sir Bruce Keogh, said the decision to release so much data in one day had been made to provide a “much clearer and comprehensive picture”.

“Until now arrangements for reporting performance have been extremely uncoordinated, “ he said.
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“Standards reported with different frequencies and on different days of the week. This made no sense.”

National Director of Commissioning Operations for NHS England, Dr Barbara Hakin, said the information “gives us a clearer and more comprehensive picture of the current operational performance of the NHS than has ever been presented before”.

“It shows high performance levels across the country, in the face of growing demand for care treatments as a result of our growing and ageing population.

“And with the NHS providing new and innovative treatment, more people are living longer than ever before with complex conditions such as heart disease or diabetes,” Dr Hakin added.

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