NHS backlog plan ‘is working’, well being secretary insists – after lacking goal to finish 18-month waits

The well being secretary has insisted the plan to scale back the NHS backlog “is working” regardless of lacking a key goal to eradicate 18-month waits.

Steve Barclay admitted the purpose to eradicate year-and-a-half waits for hospital therapy by April had been missed “by a very narrow margin”.

But he stated the federal government had minimize the listing by greater than 90% and the plan to clear the record-high backlog “is working”.

He advised Sky News: “We minimize (18-month waits) by over 90%. We received it to beneath 11,000 by the top of March.

Politics newest: Rwanda flights might start ‘as quickly as late September’

“If you look at that compared to, for example, Wales, where it was around 70,000 patients waiting 18 months in Labour-run Wales and we’ve got a population in England 18 times the size of Wales, a huge amount of progress was made.”

He added that two-year waits had been cleared in the summertime and it “shows the plan is working”.

The variety of folks in England ready to start out hospital therapy rose to a brand new excessive in March with the backlog at a report 7.3 million.

Mr Barclay stated this was a “consequence of the pandemic” and the following focus was ending year-long waits for therapy.

“We’re really focused on what more we can do to get those numbers down. But the plan is working,” he stated.

However, he declined to say what quantity the federal government would get the backlog all the way down to by the following basic election.

Read More:
£40m pilot scheme launched to extend entry to weight-loss medicine and minimize NHS ready lists
GPs must give sufferers choices to journey additional or go personal to deal with NHS backlog

Rishi Sunak has made reducing NHS ready lists one among his 5 priorities – however current polling has proven the general public thinks he’s failing on all fronts.

The job has been hampered by power workers shortages and ongoing junior medical doctors’ strikes, with a four-day walkout in April leading to practically 200,000 appointments and operations being cancelled.

The BMA has threatened to stage industrial motion all summer season if the federal government would not enhance its “paltry” 5% pay supply, with a three-day strike deliberate for later this month.

Mr Barclay admitted there’s nonetheless “distance” to go earlier than an settlement is probably going reached with the BMA union, which has been asking for a 35% pay “restoration” to make up for a decade of real-terms pay-cuts.

He stated that’s “not a reasonable ask” however the authorities had set out a suggestion and “stands ready to engage with them further”.

“It was the junior doctors suddenly who broke up the talks, who then decided to have further strike action. We want to continue a discussion, but I don’t think a 35% pay rise is reasonable.”