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Backlog of Elective Care: NHS Delivery Plan

NHS England recently published its Elective Recovery Plan, which sets out a forward-looking agenda for how the NHS will tackle the elective care backlog over the next three years; in turn, creating a more sustainable rhythm of work for the long term.

The key objectives of the plan are to ensure no patient waits longer than six weeks for a diagnostic test and 12-months for elective care by March 2025.

To keep NHS trusts on track, interim targets have been identified, driving a gradual decline in long waiters in addition to the proactive identification of waiting list optimisation opportunities through regular reviews. These include:

• Eliminating 104-week waiters by July 2022
• Eliminating 78-week waiters by April 2023
• Reducing 62-day waiters for cancer treatments by March 2023
• Reviewing all 78-week waiters every 3 months
• Reviewing all 62-day waiters every week

 

Brian Wells, Founder and Executive Chair, Four Eyes Insight, commented, “This is an ambitious plan that looks to reduce the 6M backlog waiting lists for treatment over the next three years. Such a plan requires a step change in productivity not previously experienced across the NHS. This will require significant focus and operational grip across Systems and providers.”

Care Pathway Optimisation

Increasing workforce capacity in line with the NHS People Plan is outlined as the most important dependency on delivery. But with demand exceeding capacity even before the pandemic, the challenge of delivering more elective activity will undoubtedly be about much more than just the clinical and administrative capacity available.

Elective care pathways need to be optimised at pace and trusts will need to make effective use of data to understand where efficiencies could be made for both quick wins and long-lasting change. This plan will require a seismic culture shift to embrace the changes needed and a renewed optimism within the NHS.

Elective and Surgical Hubs

Optimising for resilience is an essential component of the plan.  One such planned measure within the £1.5 billion allocated towards elective recovery services is the expansion of the surgical hubs pilot programme, designed to answer the needs of local populations and provide high volume, low complexity (HVLC) surgery.

Situated within existing hospital sites but bringing clear separation between elective and acute care, minimising the disruption that the unplanned workflows of acute care often cause on elective pathways.

Wells, who is currently supporting NHSEI South East with its elective recovery, explains, “At Four Eyes Insight, we believe that dedicated elective centres and surgical hubs have a critical role in reducing waiting lists. We are currently working with several of these surgical hubs in elevating their productivity ambitions and capabilities to maximize their true potential and strategic contribution to elective recovery.”

These hubs have already helped accelerate the number of planned operations in some locations, with further funding ringfenced to enable the expansion of existing sites and create more hubs across the country.

Further reading:

Transforming elective recovery across NHS South East

Four Eyes Insight was commissioned to implement a support programme to ensure each of the six trusts nominated across the South East region had a robust elective care recovery plan for high-volume services. Read more…