NHS 18 week pledge missed in 59 hospital trusts

David Flory the NHS Deputy Chief Executive has admitted that the 18 week pledge which promises that you will start treatment within 18 weeks of your GP referring you, are being increasingly missed.

In a letter to the English NHS trusts at the end of June, David Flory revealed that 59 of the trusts had failed to achieve the 18 week target for at least 90% of their patients as required by the NHS constitution.

David Cameron recently reinforced the pledge which was originally created under the previous Labour government.

As so often with government targets, many feel that the 18 week pledge has been fudged to make things look better than they really are. For example, if you require a scan, then the 18 week clock is stopped menaing that your official waiting is recorded as much lower than your real waiting time. In reality large numbers of patients are actually sitting on waiting lists for much longer than 18 weeks.

In David Flory’s letter, he also revealed that 32 trusts had also failed to meet the A&E pledge that 95% of patients will be seen within four hours of arrival.

This widespread non-compliance comes as a survey of NHS bosses shows that 53% of chairmen and chief executives of NHS organisations expect patients' access to care (the availability of treatment and waiting times) will worsen over the next year.
The information came from a poll, conducted by the NHS Confederation, representing hospitals, which found that 53% of 287 NHS bosses believed that of NHS performance would deteriorate. Some 32% expect the patient's experience of the NHS to worsen too, though 48% think it will improve.

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