Forty-Fourth Report - NHS backlogs and waiting times in England
Select Committee
Public Accounts Committee
HC 747
16 March 2022
Recommendations
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Conclusions (3) Observations and findings — click to expand
7
Conclusion
Acknowledged
But plans are only one part of the explanation for deteriorating performance. This Committee’s June 2019 report NHS waiting times for elective and cancer treatment concluded that the Department had allowed NHS England to be selective about which standards it focused on, reducing accountability. We recommended that the Department and …
Government Response Summary
The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation, noting the mandate to NHS England sets out the strategic goals that the government has set for NHS England in the year ahead, including objectives on recovery of wider NHS services impacted by the pandemic, and on further delivery of the NHS Long Term Plan.
9
Conclusion
Acknowledged
We sought reassurance that all additional funding would be well spent and asked for examples of the measurable improvements that we could reasonably expect to see. We heard generally from the Department that with the additional £8 billion recovery funding it wanted to restore activity to the highest level possible …
Government Response Summary
The government agrees with the recommendation and published the Elective Recovery Plan which sets out the goals for tackling the elective care and cancer backlogs over the course of the next 3 years. The government plans to eliminate waits of longer than a year for elective care by March 2025, and to have 95% of patients needing a diagnostic test receive it within six weeks by March 2025.
23
Conclusion
Acknowledged
NHSE&I emphasised the flexibility of the NHS workforce, as evidenced throughout the pandemic. It said that this workforce flexibility now needed to continue as part of transforming the NHS for the future and recovering elective and cancer care.51 In written evidence, the Health Foundation told us that serious staff shortages …
Government Response Summary
The government agrees that ensuring that the NHS has a workforce in the right numbers and with the right skills to deliver service commitments to patients is crucial and is already expanding the size of the workforce, aligning workforce planning with service and financial planning and looking at the long-term strategic drivers of workforce demand and supply.