Investment And Reform Continue To Deliver Better Patient Care, UK Department Of Health
Ms Hewitt was welcoming new statistics which give further evidence that NHS reforms are working and delivering real benefits to NHS patients. The data shows:
- the NHS continued to meet its key waiting target of delivering a six month maximum wait - even during the busy January period, with the average waiting time for treatment maintained at eight weeks
- there were around 2500 fewer operations cancelled in the last quarter of 2005 as compared to the same period of the previous year - down to just 1% of all elective activity - achieved against a backdrop of an increasing number of operations; and
- the NHS has also increased the number of adult critical care beds, meaning extra capacity for treating those patients most at need.
Patricia Hewitt said:
"NHS reforms are delivering to everyone the type of care that has only previously been available to those in society who could afford to pay for it. The extra capacity that we have delivered, coupled with our reforms, means that patients are getting faster access to care, a choice of hospital for their operation, and now have more certainty about when they will be treated.
"While we continue to see a constant flow of negative speculation and surveys about the current state of the NHS, the facts provided to us by the service often tell a different story.
"We know that a minority of NHS organisations are facing financial challenges, but we must not lose sight of the bigger picture, which is of an NHS that is carrying out more operations, has more doctors and nurses than ever before, and has eradicated the long waiting times for treatment that often added to the pain and suffering of thousands of patients.
"There is of course more work to do, but we should not ignore the significant achievements that NHS reforms have already delivered."
Today's statistics also show that the focussed effort of the NHS to meet ambitious waiting time targets for cancer patients is achieving results. The NHS Cancer Plan, published in 2000, set out that by December 2005:
- all patients diagnosed with cancer should begin treatment within a maximum of 31 days of the decision to treat; and - all patients with cancer who have been urgently referred by their GP should begin treatment within a maximum of 62 days of that GP Referral.
The NHS has been working hard to redesign services and introduce new, creative and more efficient ways of working, so that cancer patients treated from 1 January 2006 onwards can expect to be treated within the target times.
In the latest report on progress, the NHS has already achieved a waiting time of 31 days from diagnosis to treatment for 96.8 per cent of cancer patients.
The more challenging target of 62 days from urgent GP referral to treatment, to streamline the whole patient journey, has been achieved for 83.9 per cent of patients.
Ms Hewitt said:
"This is good progress in delivering faster care to patients who most need it. But efforts must now be sustained until the 62 day target has been achieved for 95 per cent of patients. This is the threshold we expect the NHS to achieve and one that will save even more lives."
1. All of the new data is available at http://www.dh.gov.uk
2. In-patient waits: the waiting list stands at 792,000, representing a decrease of 366,000 since March 1997, and 57,000 since January 2005. This is also down 521,000 since the peak waiting list in April 1998.
3. Cancelled operations: In Q3 2005/6 14,818 operations were cancelled, representing 1.0% of all elective activity. In the same period in 2004/05 there were 17,402 cancellations representing 1.2% of elective activity. For the previous three years the Q3 figure has been around 1.3%.
4. Critical care beds: The overall number of open and staffed beds for adult critical care was 3233. This represents 40 (1.3%) more beds than at 14 July 2005.
5. Figures for waiting times for cancer treatment published today cover the period between October and December 2005. The achievement of the targets will be measured by Quarter 4 2005/06 data (January to March 2006) which is due for publication in May 2006.
http://www.dh.gov.uk
De Investiþii ºi de a continua reforma pentru a furniza o mai bunã îngrijire a pacientului, Marea Britanie Departamentul de sãnãtate - Investment And Reform Continue To Deliver Better Patient Care, UK Department Of Health - articole medicale engleza - startsanatate