Figures out today show some progress has been made on NHS waiting times, most notably around patients referred for tests.
In January patients waited an average of 17 days for tests and checks – 43 days less than at the height of the pandemic in May 2020, NHS England said, and the lowest level seen since then.
Overall, 2.5 million checks were done in January, 5% higher than the same month last year, the data showed.
The total number of patients on the waiting list also fell slightly again for the fifth month in a row and now stands at 7.43 million.
But there are still 13,717 beds each day taken up by patients who do not need to be in hospital and more than 47,500 patients in February who waited longer than 12 hours in an emergency department before admission, the NHS statistics showed.
NHS leaders said 58.9% of patients were treated within 18 weeks with those waiting a year now making up 2.7% of the waiting list – a figure that has been falling month by month.
Yet the proportion seen within the standard of 18 weeks has not changed substantially in the past year. Before the pandemic this figure was around 84%.
More patients were given a diagnosis of cancer or the all-clear within 28 days (195,366 compared with 186,422 the year before), equating to 73.4% of patients just under the operational standard of 75%.
An elective reform plan published in January included £80m of funding for A&G to help prevent ‘unnecessary referrals’ with 800,000 more patients managed in primary rather than secondary care annually.
It also included an ambition for GPs to refer more patients directly for diagnostics for conditions such as breathlessness, asthma in children, and post-menopausal bleeding.
The latest figures were released on the same day that the Government announced it will abolish NHS England in a bid to ‘reduce duplication’ with the Department of Health and put more resources back into front line care.
The Government said the move would ‘reduce complex bureaucracy’ and ‘undo the damage caused by 2012 reorganisation’, led by then-health secretary Andrew Lansley and which saw the formation of NHS England as an arms-length body in 2013.
Earlier this week there had been reporting that some community diagnostic centres are being earmarked for closure or plans scrapped for new ones as part of local cost-cutting proposals.
HSJ said closing the centres which had been part of the elective recovery plan as part of recovering long cancer diagnosis waits were among a range of options being considered.
Pulse has approached NHS England for comment on this.
Professor Sir Stephen Powis, NHS national medical director, who is among a wave of top leadership who have recently announced their decision to step down, said: ‘Delivering more tests and checks faster is a vital part of efforts to cut waiting lists, and it is hugely significant that thanks to the hard work of staff and the rollout of community diagnostic centres, the average time waiting for tests has fallen to just 17 days – the quickest in almost five years.
‘Despite huge pressure this winter from high bed occupancy and winter viruses, NHS teams delivered huge increases in treatments, tests and cancer checks, and as well as the overall waiting list falling for the fifth month in a row, it is welcome that the number of patients waiting more than a year has fallen below 200,000 for the first time since 2020.’
He added there was much further to go but the figures were ‘encouraging’.
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