Waiting list target fears

FEWER than half of NHS trusts will meet key recovery targets on waiting lists and cancer this winter, bosses warn.

The Health Service is still delivering fewer planned treatments now than before the pandemic and this is likely to worsen as strikes bite, they admit.

Nurses have voted to walk out after demanding a 17 per cent pay increase.

In a poll, only 46 per cent of trust leaders felt they were on track to meet elective recovery and cancer targets by the end of the financial year.

The survey by NHS Providers, which represents trusts, found trust leaders were more worried about this winter than any previous one.

It comes amid record NHS waiting lists for treatment in England, with 7.1million people on the overall waiting list and a raft of cancer targets routinely missed.

Speaking ahead of the NHS Providers conference today, interim chief executive Saffron Cordery said: ‘Alarm bells should be ringing across Whitehall with warnings from trust leaders that less than half expect to meet key end-of-year elective recovery and cancer targets.’

An NHS spokesman said: ‘Despite concerns about what is likely to be a very challenging winter, the NHS is on track to deliver its recovery milestones.

The news that fewer than half of NhS trusts expect to meet key targets on cancer and clearing the Covid backlog this winter is deeply worrying.

This will come as a body blow to patients waiting anxiously, and often in pain, for operations and treatment.

Given this potential for human misery, can the Royal College of Nursing really justify making things worse by going on strike in search of a 17 per cent pay rise?

It would be a tragedy if nurses abandoned their patients. They are supposed to be compassionate professionals and their first duty is meant to be care.