Barrister James Goudie QC has said that Jeremy Hunt broke the law by not instructing the NHS to ensure they meet a 92% target of patients who receive treatment within 18 weeks, as was instructed in previous mandates.
Health secretary Jeremy Hunt did not include a stated target that waiting times should not exceed 18 weeks for at least 92% of patients in his 2017-2018 mandate to NHS England, and it was recently announced by the chief executive of NHS England that there would no longer be an 18-week guarantee for operations considered to be of “low clinical value”. The relaxation of the target was said to be a “trade-off” for improvement in other areas.
Goudie released a 12-page opinion in which he affirms that Jeremy Hunt’s failure to include the 92% target for Referral-for-Treatment waiting times of 18 weeks was unlawful. He explained: “This is because the 2012 Regulations and the NHS constitution have the effect that this must be included. The annual mandate cannot lawfully be used to circumvent or undermine by omission the absolute statutory and sub-statutory requirements.”
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