NHS Confederation has said that a generational change in how we treat patients is needed if the NHS is to address spiralling waiting lists and ensure the ‘missing’ seven million patients who are not on the official waiting list get the care they need.
The organisation’s new report warns that waiting lists have grown more rapidly in more deprived areas during the pandemic, with marginalised groups likely to make up many of the missing seven million patients who would have been expected to have come forward for treatment had it not been for the pandemic.
The analysis found that, overall, levels of waiting per head of population are associated with areas of greater deprivation.
Health and Social Care Secretary Sajid Javid recently warned that the waiting list could spiral to 13 million unless urgent action is taken. The recent spending review settlement for the NHS provided an extra £15.8 billion over three years, with most of that funding - £8 billion – going towards dealing with the care backlog. The NHS Confederation and other bodies have warned that the extra funding is welcome and important but it falls short of what is required.
Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said: “The scale and complexity of what the NHS now needs to deliver is unprecedented. The pandemic will leave a backlog of care in excess of anything we have seen over the last decade. As well as more people waiting, people are waiting longer and because of that, their needs are more complex. The waiting list is now at over 5.6 million and there are believed to be at least seven million more people in need of treatment who have not been identified yet.
“There are already indications that waiting lists have grown more rapidly in more deprived areas during the pandemic and this will get worse unless we deliver what one NHS chief executive told us is a ‘generational change’ in our approach to healthcare. The NHS is based on the founding principles of care being free at the point of use, on the basis of need and not ability to pay. For the NHS to truly live up to its founding principles, NHS leaders know that we need a new approach to dealing with the backlog that is based on targeting those in most need, and not solely responding to demand from those who come forward. Traditional approaches to elective care have been based on treating patients in chronological order from when they join the waiting list. This approach won’t work this time round.
“Getting this right will require the NHS to reach out to local communities in imaginative ways. Many local NHS providers and integrated care systems are already doing this by going out into their local communities, including to places of worship and social clubs to actively target people who need care but who have not yet come forward. It means the waiting list will almost certainly get worse before it gets better. But this approach is the right one given it will help ensure we address the backlog in a fairer way.”
