Date: 21 November 2011

It is reported that those hospital patients who are not seen within the Government’s 18 week target are then left to ‘languish’ on waiting lists, so that over 100,000 have waited for more than six months and 20,000 have waited at least a year to be seen.

This can happen as there is no cap or ceiling on the maximum waiting time for a patient to be seen. Ministers have now demanded that NHS managers reduce the number of ‘long waiters’ by about 50,000 by April 2012.

Sandra Patton, a medical injury specialist with Ashton KCJ, comments: “Whilst these statistics relate to non-urgent cases, there is no doubt that long delays in treatment can cause significant distress to patients and can greatly reduce their quality of life. If a patient has not been seen by the first target date, the incentive for the hospital is then to get someone else seen before the patient who has missed the boat. There is concern that the Government's proposed overhaul of the NHS will make matters worse as NHS hospitals become distracted by competing with the private sector”.