WIREDGOV

Sarah Woolnough, Chief Executive of The King’s Fund, responded to the latest monthly NHS performance data 

‘After facing an awful autumn, suffering through the busiest October on record for A&Es, the NHS is now heading into a winter blizzard of pressures because of rising demand, industrial action, and a flu season that could be the worst in years – all of which will have knock-on effects for patient care.

‘Although the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care announced this week that redundancies created by cuts to local NHS bodies will be covered by recouping costs further down the line, none of this points to good news for staff or patients this winter, with a hospital waiting list that is stubbornly high at 7.4 million.  

‘NHS hospitals have been merging for years, so it is helpful that the performance stats now include data on what is happening at each major local site within a single NHS trust, and on the proportion of people with mental health problems who are waiting for care. This will better represent how patients actually experience long A&E waits when they visit their local hospital site – for example, it shows that only 4% of sites met the four-hour A&E target last month.

‘In all, the new insights are a welcome step towards this government’s commitment to greater transparency as to how the NHS is performing. However, given the pressures the NHS is facing from all angles, for now, people will have to hope that the promised rewards of reform will come sooner rather than later.’