Health secretary Steve Barclay has been urged to “get a grip” of the growing crisis in the NHS as official data indicates the number of people waiting to start NHS treatment in England has increased by more than 66,000 in a single month.
Just a day after the Royal College of Nursing’s announcement that nurses across the UK will strike over pay, NHS England released data revealing the number of patients awaiting the start of treatment has hit 7.07m – up from 7,003,256 people at the end of August.
Of those, 401,537 patients were waiting more than a year and 2,239 patients were waiting more than two years.
For patients waiting to start treatment at the end of September 2022, the median waiting time was 14 weeks.
Urgent action required
David Hare, chief executive of the Independent Healthcare Providers Network (IHPN), said the figures underlined the need for new health secretary Barclay to take “urgent action” to tackle the growing backlog of care and get a grip of the growing crisis in the NHS.
“With waiting times for care increasing every month, this is being felt not just by millions of patients who are suffering in pain as they wait ever longer for treatment, but also by businesses and employers across the country,” Hare said.
“Recent polling from IHPN found that one third (34%) of businesses have experienced rising sickness absences over the last 12 months, with over half of organisations (53%) concerned that the current rising NHS waiting times may result in employees taking long absences or permanently leaving work due to sickness.
“These figures make clear that the link between the health and wealth of the country can no longer be ignored, and the government must now see tackling the NHS backlog as an economic, as well as health priority.”
Profound impact
According to Siva Anandaciva, chief analyst at The King’s Fund, the government’s financial plan – set for next Thursday – will have a “profound impact” on the quality and accessibility of health and care services for patients in the coming years.
“If NHS budgets keep being eroded by inflation, it is hard to see how ambitious government targets to reduce hospital waiting lists – which currently stands at 7.1 million for routine care – can possibly be achieved,” Anandaciva said.
“History has shown us that attempts to protect core NHS budgets at the expense of wider spending on social care, illness prevention and capital investment are short-sighted and can lead to greater pressure on services further down the line, and leave NHS patients and staff with failing equipment, dilapidated buildings and poorer health.”
Consequently, Anandaciva said now is the time for the government to show stewardship of health and care services as well as the economy.
“If, instead, ministers choose to squeeze health and care budgets, they must be prepared to explain to patients and the public why services are going to deteriorate, with poorer care and longer waits as a result,” Anandaciva concluded.