Routine operations targets missed for first time

The target for routine operation in England has been missed for the first time.

At the end of December 2015, 91.8 per cent of patients on the waiting list had been waiting less than 18 weeks. However, the target put in place in April 2012 is 92 per cent.

The NHS England statistics show that at the end of December the number of patients waiting to start treatment for routine operations was just under 3.3 million and of those, 755 people had been waiting for longer than 52 weeks.

December 1 was the day of the first junior doctors strike, which although called off at the last minute, left many hospitals a few thousand operations already cancelled, which, in part, may have caused the missed target.

An NHS England spokesman said: "Hospitals continue to treat more than nine out of 10 patients within 18 weeks of their referral. More than 1.14 million patients started consultant-led treatment in December and the total number of patients referred in 2015 is up 4.1 per cent on the previous year."

Clare Marx, president of The Royal College of Surgeons, said: “Doctors in the NHS are working incredibly hard and surgeons delivered a record number of operations during 2015. It is therefore particularly disappointing that the NHS has now missed its waiting times target.

“In surgery, performance has been particularly affected for operations such as hip and knee replacements. Delayed treatment is extremely distressing to all patients.”

Marx also expressed concerns for the rising number of patients being delayed from leaving hospital to go home or to alternative care environments.

She added: “This not only places the patient at greater safety risk, such as falls, or immobility which can lead to infection, but also denies much needed hospital beds to others. The increasing delays are, it seems, partly due to the consequences of a reduction in spending on social care. We urgently need a political consensus on the funding of social care.”