England’s health services are at risk of not meeting their waiting list targets

Finance Minister Jeremy Hunt will introduce tax increases and spending cuts later today. Unions are preparing for possible strike action for the winter, warning the autumn announcement is the last chance to “save the NHS”.

As the NHS tries to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, health service officials have warned of an exceptionally difficult winter, which has put services under pressure, disrupted non-Covid procedures and fueled a staffing crisis.

The National Audit Office report said the speed of recovery targeted by NHS England in elective care and cancer care wards is “far from guaranteed, with a number of risks and challenges threatening to push recovery further down the road”.

“The government faces a huge challenge to remove the backlog of the NHS,” said opposition Labor MP Meg Hillier, chair of the public accounts committee, who had “previously warned the government against overly optimistic plans”.

Health Minister Steve Barclay told an NHS providers’ conference on Wednesday that he wanted to identify practical steps he could take to support NHS staff in a tough economic environment.

“Tackling the backlash of COVID is our top priority,” said a spokesperson for the health minister. “The NHS is making great progress in reducing 18-month waits by 60% in a year and virtually eliminating waits of more than two years.”

NHS England aims to eliminate annual waiting times for elective care by March 2025, and by March next year patients waiting for a cancer referral will return from pre-pandemic levels.

But even if these targets were met, the NAO said many patients would still wait longer than the standards set for services.

Siva Anandasiva, chief researcher at the health charity The King’s Fund, said that even before the pandemic, waiting time targets had not been met for years, which showed “how deep-rooted these funding and staffing problems are”.

“The government’s actions need to match its rhetoric – if it is serious about reducing waiting lists and improving care for patients, the fall report later today should be an investment story,” he said.