NHS Confederation responds to Public Accounts Committee report on reducing NHS waiting times for elective care

Responding to the Public Accounts Committee’s report on reducing NHS waiting times for planned (or elective) care, Rory Deighton, acute and community care director at the NHS Confederation, said:

“Health leaders and their teams have been working hard to reform outpatient services and are continuing to ramp up their efforts to reduce waiting lists. They are adopting more innovative and efficient approaches to deliver care faster and more effectively and this includes expanding digital access to appointments, streamlining advice and guidance pathways for clinicians, and redesigning services to better meet patients’ needs.

“While waiting lists have fallen slightly recently and productivity has increased, there is still a long way to go to restore performance and meet the health service’s constitutional target that 92 per cent of patients should wait no longer than 18 weeks for consultant-led treatment from the point of referral by March 2029.

“To be in with a fighting chance of meeting these recovery targets for waiting lists and improving patient access, health service leaders are calling for more capital funding to modernise NHS buildings and for digital infrastructure to be upgraded so that they can provide faster, more efficient care.”