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  • NHS England Told To Focus On Cutting Waiting Times For Patients

NHS England Told To Focus On Cutting Waiting Times For Patients

NHS England shifts focus to cutting waiting times, scrapping plans for early cancer diagnosis, women’s health, and childhood vaccinations.

NHS England Told To Focus On Cutting Waiting Times For Patients


NHS England is shifting its focus from various improvement initiatives to prioritizing the reduction of waiting times for patients. This decision comes after directives from ministers to concentrate on more immediate concerns within the health service.

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As part of the new strategy, NHS England is abandoning plans to diagnose cancers early, boost women’s health, and increase childhood vaccinations. The health service will also drop commitments to expand access to dental treatment, provide more people with preventive stroke drugs, and enhance care for individuals with learning disabilities.

Under these changes, care providers will no longer prioritize increasing the number of dementia diagnoses, offering patients more choice about their treatment locations, or expanding the use of talking therapies for anxiety and depression.

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Health experts and charities have criticized these shifts, warning that the new priorities may prove damaging and even “dangerous” for some patient groups. They argue that the changes are at odds with the government’s broader ambition to improve national health.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting addressed these concerns by emphasizing the need to shorten waiting times for A&E, cancer care, and hospital treatment. Surveys have shown that long delays for NHS care are the public’s greatest concern. Streeting announced the overhaul when presenting the NHS’s mandate and planning guidance for 2025-26, reducing the NHS’s list of priorities from 32 for 2024-25 to just 18 for the next financial year.

“This new approach will see the NHS focus on what matters most to patients – cutting waiting lists, getting seen promptly at A&E, and being able to get a GP appointment,” Streeting stated.

Despite these reassurances, health groups have not been placated. Dr. Sarah Hughes, chief executive of the charity Mind, accused ministers of “deprioritizing mental health” by dropping numerous schemes aimed at improving care. These included plans for annual physical health checkups for 75% of those with severe mental illness, ensuring at least 700,000 people complete a course of psychological talking therapies, and expanding maternal mental health support to at least 66,000 women.

Obstetricians and gynecologists pointed out that dropping plans to ensure each of the 42 NHS regions in England has a dedicated women’s health hub breaches Labour’s election manifesto commitment to prioritize women’s health, though 39 of the regions already have at least one hub.

Other targets that were cut include:

  • Getting 80% of individuals with high blood pressure on statins
  • Providing annual checkups for 75% of people with learning disabilities
  • Increasing childhood vaccination rates to levels recommended by the World Health Organization

Sarah Woolnough, chief executive of the King’s Fund think tank, noted that reducing the number of national NHS targets is not necessarily a bad thing. However, she expressed concern that focusing primarily on hospital care while losing targets for childhood vaccination and preventive medicines appears inconsistent with the goal of preventing illness.

Dr. Becks Fisher, director of research and policy at the Nuffield Trust, emphasized the need for improvements in dentistry, but criticized the limited pledge to expand urgent dental appointments as insufficient. “Given that the NHS cannot cover everyone on this budget, it is not clear that more emergency appointments should be the priority,” she stated.

Fiona Carragher from the Alzheimer’s Society and Jon Sparkes, chief executive of Mencap, also expressed shock and disappointment over the abandonment of targets to improve dementia diagnosis and care for people with learning disabilities.

The new instructions to NHS England will also result in the elimination of 2,000 jobs as part of a drive to save £325 million next year. The health service as a whole has been instructed to reduce costs by 1%, amounting to about £1 billion.

Amanda Pritchard, NHS England’s chief executive, acknowledged the financial challenges, stating, “In what will undoubtedly be another tough financial year, the NHS will continue its relentless focus on boosting productivity and driving efficiencies for the benefit of patients and taxpayers.”

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