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 cut back the NHS backlog “is working” regardless of lacking a key goal to eradicate 18-month waits.

Steve Barclay admitted the aim 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 lower the record by greater than 90% and the plan to clear the record-high backlog “is working”.

He instructed Sky News: “We lower (18-month waits) by over 90%. We received it to below 11,000 by the tip of March.

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“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 begin hospital therapy rose to a brand new excessive in March with the backlog at a document 7.3 million.

Mr Barclay stated this was a “consequence of the pandemic” and the subsequent 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 right down to by the subsequent common election.

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Rishi Sunak has made chopping NHS ready lists certainly one of his 5 priorities – but recent polling has shown the public thinks he is failing on all fronts.

The process has been hampered by continual workers shortages and ongoing junior docs’ strikes, with a four-day walkout in April leading to nearly 200,000 appointments and operations being cancelled.

The BMA has threatened to stage industrial action all summer 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.”