Deborah Ward, Senior Analyst at The King’s Fund, commented on recent monthly NHS performance figures
‘Despite a mild winter, these figures reveal a hidden crisis in hospitals up and down the country. In February just 84.2 per cent of patients were seen by A&E units within the four-hour target, the lowest level since this data was first collected. Meanwhile the NHS is now missing six out of eight of the existing targets for cancer diagnosis and treatment.
‘We must not become immune to the reality that behind these figures are stories of people with urgent medical needs waiting too long to be treated. While the NHS England’s clinically-led review of NHS access standards seeks to address some of these issues, changing existing targets and introducing new standards is not a panacea for improving patient care – without enough staff and resources to care for patients, targets both new and old will continue to be missed.’