Streeting represents additional investment for England’s hospitals which are the fastest reducing waiting times
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Hospitals in England that deliver the fastest improvements in waiting times for care will be rewarded with a share of millions of pounds in extra investment in buildings and equipment, Wes Streeting announced on Monday.
The Health Secretary’s move aims to encourage NHS chiefs to hit a target of 92 per cent of patients not waiting more than 18 weeks to start non-urgent treatment after being referred to a consultant.
Last month, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer injected new urgency into the standard, first set by Tony Blair two decades ago, when he called it one of six “milestones” for his administration and promised it would be met by the end of the current parliament.
However, the benchmark has not been reached for almost 10 years, as austerity measures, the pandemic and the increasing demand of an aging and growing population have further burdened health services.
Ahead of Monday’s announcement, Department of Health officials told the Financial Times that extra funding for capital projects — such as new high-tech scanners or much-needed ward maintenance — would be available to NHS trusts that made the biggest improvements in meeting the 18-week deadline. standard treatment.
Effectiveness would be measured by the percentage of patients seen within that time frame, they said.
The lure of additional capital funding will resonate in a service that has long lagged behind comparable countries in the amount invested in infrastructure.
In a government-commissioned report last year, Lord Ara Darzi, a surgeon and former health minister, identified capital shortfall of around £37 billion.
Streeting said some hospital trusts were already leading the way, carrying out operations “in more innovative, productive ways. This Government will support them with new capital investments and let them work their way through the backlog”.
Foundations that treated more patients should be paid more for their work, “and good results should be rewarded to encourage excellent results — that’s how we’ll reduce waiting times,” he added.
The proposal will form part of an electoral reform plan, to be published by the government and the NHS on Monday, which will set out how the NHS will return to the 18-week standard.
The move is backed by the £25.6 billion announced for the NHS in October’s budget. Ministers say the extra cash will help fund an extra 2 million tests within a year, but health leaders have warned of “confusion” about whether to set priorities achieving performance goals or winter enrollment growth.
At the end of October, according to the latest available data, patients were waiting for 7.54 million procedures and appointments. About 40 percent of people waited longer than 18 weeks.
Pressure on the NHS was heightened by data on Friday which showed a sudden increase in flu cases during the holiday season. More than 5,000 patients were admitted to hospital with the virus late last week, almost 3.5 times more than in the same week in 2023.
Ministers are also facing a backlash from campaigners and opposition parties after Streeting said on Friday that a new commission looking into how to overhaul social care would not produce its final report until 2028.
More than a quarter of a century has passed since the publication of the first of several major inquiries into social care, which has long weighed on the NHS but was barely mentioned during the 2024 general election.
