The number of people in hospital with flu dropped off during Christmas week (w/e 28 December), but England’s top doctor has warned that the NHS is ‘far from complacent’ during the cold snap. Amber and yellow cold health alerts for England have been issued by UKHSA as temperatures have fallen in recent days to drop below […]
Richard Barker, Interim National Director of Commissioning Operations and Information, said: “While it was pleasing to see improvements in Referral to Treatment Times and Diagnostic Waiting Times compared with last month, in A&E we really are now seeing the effects of the delayed flu spike which peaked in February and March this year compared with […]
NHS England has set aside £55 million to reward GPs and hospitals to switching to making referrals digitally by 2018, calling time on the practice of referring patients to hospital by second class post. At the moment around 50% of patients are referred for hospital appointments electronically. It is intended this will increase rapidly to […]
NHS England has today published its first set of monthly data covering key areas of urgent and emergency care, cancer treatment and patient waiting times. This follows a recommendation from Sir Bruce Keogh to NHS England’s Chief Executive Simon Stevens in a letter published in June entitled ‘making waiting times work for patients’. NHS England’s […]
NHS England today (Friday) praised NHS staff for referring and treating an increasing number of patients for cancer as more people step forward for treatment early. Publishing the latest statistics on cancer waiting time standards, it said a welcome rise in referrals and treatment rates had put pressure on hospitals. It announced the creation of […]
Simon Stevens, NHS England Chief Executive, said: “The NHS has made huge progress over the past decade in slashing long waits, so the median wait for patients having an operation is now under 10 weeks. To lock-in that achievement – and go further in eliminating the longest waits – CCGs are now using earmarked extra […]
Dr Barbara Hakin, Chief Operating Officer, NHS England, said: “The NHS does face a challenge on the 18-week standard but staff are working incredibly hard to ensure patients are seen quickly. “The figures published today show that in February we failed to meet the standard on the number of patients who were admitted for their […]