NHS waiting list has fallen by 35% since 1998
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《英国医生杂志》
The Labour government抯 systematic investment in the health service is delivering concrete results, Nigel Crisp, chief executive of the NHS, said last week in his end of year report.
The financial expansion, which started in 1998 and has seen the NHS receive several large cash injections, is now resulting in shorter waiting times and falling numbers of premature deaths.
The reduction in waiting times, which the government has been under particular pressure to deliver, gives the report a focus. The number of inpatients on waiting lists has fallen by 35% since it peaked in 1998, falling from more than a million then to 850 000 today.
The report shows that about 70 000 outpatients are now waiting more than six months for treatment, and the government hopes to reduce this to zero by the end of 2005.
Progress has also been made with outpatient waiting times. The number of outpatients waiting more than 13 weeks for treatment has dropped from nearly 450 000 four years ago to just more than 77 000, and again the government hopes to eradicate these waits completely by December 2005.
General practice has seen improvements too: 99% of patients can now see their GP within 48 hours of seeking an appointment.
According to Mr Crisp, the changes which have produced these results are twofold—the expansion of the workforce and the introduction of innovative measures to reduce pressure on frontline services.
The NHS now operates with an extra 5600 doctors and 18 000 nurses, midwives, and health visitors, he said. Sixty one new walk-in centres have been introduced, at which patients can receive advice and treatment without a prior appointment; a further 21 centres are in development.
NHS Direct and NHS Direct Online are increasingly popular and are now the first point of contact for 13 million patients a year. In 2004, independent sector facilities provided treatment for 17 000 patients.
When Mr Crisp presented the figures at a press conference last week, he was questioned about the erratic pattern of the fall in waiting lists, and about the fact that waiting times did not include the time that patients had to wait before they got onto a waiting list.
Mr Crisp referred to a "bouncing ball" effect, in which waiting list times plummeted dramatically in the month before the April audit deadline and rose sharply again in the following months, although a general downward trend persisted. Mr Crisp explained the pattern by saying, "People work to deadlines. The deadline is hit and then maybe there抯 a slight sigh of relief."
He was also asked why the figures did not include waiting times for diagnostic tests, a period which was estimated to constitute about two thirds of the total wait. "As we meet these targets so we make new ones," Mr Crisp said, "Our next target will be to measure the total wait from the moment you see your GP."
Mr Crisp said there were other successes to celebrate in the report—a gradual reduction in the last decade in the number of premature deaths caused by cancer and a decrease in the suicide rate, which is now at its lowest on record. Also, the NHS Stop Smoking campaign had evidently been a great success, with the number of successful quitters doubling over the last four years. "These successes are hard ones and the staff have had to take on extra pressure," said Mr Crisp. "We owe the results to their hard work, passion, and skill, and we owe them our thanks."(London Madeleine Bretting)
The financial expansion, which started in 1998 and has seen the NHS receive several large cash injections, is now resulting in shorter waiting times and falling numbers of premature deaths.
The reduction in waiting times, which the government has been under particular pressure to deliver, gives the report a focus. The number of inpatients on waiting lists has fallen by 35% since it peaked in 1998, falling from more than a million then to 850 000 today.
The report shows that about 70 000 outpatients are now waiting more than six months for treatment, and the government hopes to reduce this to zero by the end of 2005.
Progress has also been made with outpatient waiting times. The number of outpatients waiting more than 13 weeks for treatment has dropped from nearly 450 000 four years ago to just more than 77 000, and again the government hopes to eradicate these waits completely by December 2005.
General practice has seen improvements too: 99% of patients can now see their GP within 48 hours of seeking an appointment.
According to Mr Crisp, the changes which have produced these results are twofold—the expansion of the workforce and the introduction of innovative measures to reduce pressure on frontline services.
The NHS now operates with an extra 5600 doctors and 18 000 nurses, midwives, and health visitors, he said. Sixty one new walk-in centres have been introduced, at which patients can receive advice and treatment without a prior appointment; a further 21 centres are in development.
NHS Direct and NHS Direct Online are increasingly popular and are now the first point of contact for 13 million patients a year. In 2004, independent sector facilities provided treatment for 17 000 patients.
When Mr Crisp presented the figures at a press conference last week, he was questioned about the erratic pattern of the fall in waiting lists, and about the fact that waiting times did not include the time that patients had to wait before they got onto a waiting list.
Mr Crisp referred to a "bouncing ball" effect, in which waiting list times plummeted dramatically in the month before the April audit deadline and rose sharply again in the following months, although a general downward trend persisted. Mr Crisp explained the pattern by saying, "People work to deadlines. The deadline is hit and then maybe there抯 a slight sigh of relief."
He was also asked why the figures did not include waiting times for diagnostic tests, a period which was estimated to constitute about two thirds of the total wait. "As we meet these targets so we make new ones," Mr Crisp said, "Our next target will be to measure the total wait from the moment you see your GP."
Mr Crisp said there were other successes to celebrate in the report—a gradual reduction in the last decade in the number of premature deaths caused by cancer and a decrease in the suicide rate, which is now at its lowest on record. Also, the NHS Stop Smoking campaign had evidently been a great success, with the number of successful quitters doubling over the last four years. "These successes are hard ones and the staff have had to take on extra pressure," said Mr Crisp. "We owe the results to their hard work, passion, and skill, and we owe them our thanks."(London Madeleine Bretting)