NHS launches review into why patients aren’t being seen despite rise in budget and staff

The NHS has launched a review into why it is not treating more patients, despite having more staff and a higher budget than before the pandemic.

According to The Times, management consultant agency McKinsey has been brought in to conduct a 10-week investigation to identify the inefficiencies and to ensure that health chiefs are “doing everything possible to boost productivity.”

Reports say that ministers have allocated the NHS an extra £ 20 billion since 2019 – taking its total budget past the £ 155 billion-a-year mark, and the workforce has increased by more than 200,000. But despite this, figures show that productivity has only increased by 1.8 per cent.

The probe will also investigate why some NHS Trusts are performing better than others.

According to figures, 86.5 per cent of patients waiting for routine care at Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust have yet to breach the NHS’s 18-week target. However, the figure is just 38.1 per cent at Milton Keynes University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.

The review will determine why the number of patients being admitted for routine or emergency care is still lower than in 2019, even though the NHS employs 16 per cent more doctors and 15 per cent more nurses than before the pandemic.

The Times reports that The Treasury is putting pressure on the NHS in a wider review of public sector effectiveness, which is expected to form a key part of the autumn statement. It has been reported that Chancellor Jeremy Hunt is demanding another 0.5 percent a year in efficiencies.

The review comes after the NHS backlog spiralled to a record 7.7 million in September, where more than one million patients were waiting for more than one appointment or procedure. Figures also show that a quarter of patients had to wait up to a week for an appointment, while 13 percent waited between a week and 14 days and 22 percent were seen between a fortnight and a month later.

An NHS spokesperson said:

“This work will build on existing, extensive work to ensure the NHS is doing everything possible to deliver the biggest possible benefit for patients and how we maximise the use of national programmes to support frontline services.

“NHS staff are working incredibly hard to see and treat record numbers of patients – treating more people than before the pandemic, carrying out double the number of cancer checks now than a decade ago – while making significant progress on recovering services, with year-long waits reducing in September, two-year waits virtually eliminated and those waiting longer than 65 weeks more than halved since their peak.”

Ben Zaranko, of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, said:

“We are treating about the same number of patients with more staff and more money. It’s a really puzzling situation. The government is quite right to be unimpressed that the extra resources don’t seem to be buying much.”

Further reading

Medical misdiagnosis or delay – Oakwood Solicitors

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