Recommendations & Conclusions
8 items
2
Recommendation
Thirty-Eighth Report - Managing NHS bac…
Accepted
NHS England was over-optimistic about the circumstances in which the NHS would be trying to recover elective and cancer care. In our first report on NHS backlogs and waiting times in March 2022, we reported our concern that “officials are too optimistic about the resilience of NHS services in the …
Government response. The government agrees to revisit their planning assumptions for the recovery and publicly report any updates to targets so that patients and NHS staff can see a clear and realistic trajectory to achieve the 62-day cancer backlog target, the 52-week …
HM Treasury
3
Recommendation
Thirty-Eighth Report - Managing NHS bac…
Accepted
NHS funding has increased, but to deliver key priorities such as elective and cancer recovery it will need to be spent in the most cost-effective way. The Department has allocated £14 billion to NHSE from 2022–23 to 2024–25 specifically to recover elective and cancer care. This comprises £8 billion of …
Government response. NHS England will write to the Committee before summer recess to set out further detail on how funding available for elective recovery will be spent, together with details of its evaluation plans and initiatives to improve productivity.
HM Treasury
4
Recommendation
Thirty-Eighth Report - Managing NHS bac…
Accepted
NHS England’s elective recovery programme partly relies on initiatives which have potential but for which there is so far limited evidence of effectiveness. NHSE has expanded some programmes because it believes them to be sufficiently promising, but there is currently a limited evidence base for their effectiveness, their impact on …
Government response. The government agrees to describe the real-world impact of community diagnostic centres, surgical hubs, increased use of the independent sector, and the advice and guidance programme and write to the committee before the summer recess to give further details.
HM Treasury
6
Recommendation
Thirty-Eighth Report - Managing NHS bac…
Accepted
The NHS’s recovery cannot succeed without comprehensive, realistic and sustainable plans for the future of the workforce and the capacity of adult social care. The Royal Colleges of Radiologists, Surgeons, Nursing, Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, and Ophthalmologists all submitted evidence to us stressing the need for strategic workforce planning. In our …
Government response. The government agrees to work with NHS England to reassess the achievability of elective and cancer recovery targets following the publication of its workforce plan in 2023 and the planned improvements to discharge of patients into adult social care and …
HM Treasury
7
Recommendation
Thirty-Eighth Report - Managing NHS bac…
Accepted
In July 2022, the Chief Executive of the NHS, wrote to all Chief Executives of NHS trusts, NHS Foundation Trusts and Integrated Care Boards stating that the 62-day cancer backlog target should be a critical priority for the remainder of the year.13 This instruction has not led to the results …
Government response. The government agrees to revisit planning assumptions for recovery and publicly report any updates to targets for the 62-day cancer backlog, the 52-week wait target, and the 18-week legal standard, with implementation by Spring 2024. They also announced an additional …
HM Treasury
8
Recommendation
Thirty-Eighth Report - Managing NHS bac…
Accepted
This Committee first looked at post-pandemic backlogs in December 2021, publishing our report in March 2022. We noted that officials appeared to be planning on the basis of optimistic future scenarios and also that there was general over-optimism from officials on the short- and medium-term resilience of the NHS.15 The …
Government response. The government agrees to revisit planning assumptions and publicly report any updates to targets for cancer backlog, elective care waits, and the 18-week standard, with a target implementation date of Spring 2024, and states actions have been stepped up to …
HM Treasury
9
Recommendation
Thirty-Eighth Report - Managing NHS bac…
Accepted
We asked NHSE about its optimism at the time it agreed the recovery targets. It told us that its assumption about low levels of COVID-19 had turned out to be “completely wrong”. It added that this had resulted in both a higher than anticipated demand for hospital beds for patients …
Government response. The government agrees to revisit planning assumptions and publicly report any updates to targets for cancer backlog, elective care waits, and the 18-week standard, with a target implementation date of Spring 2024, and states actions have been stepped up to …
HM Treasury
19
Recommendation
Thirty-Eighth Report - Managing NHS bac…
Accepted
We asked NHSE about its programme management of the recovery and its strategic approach to tackling variation in performance between NHS areas. The National Audit Office found that, whilst recovery funding was allocated in September 2021 and the recovery plan published in February 2022, NHSE had only filled seven out …
Government response. The government agrees with the recommendation and will assess all providers based on their confidence in delivering against targets, with providers at highest risk receiving additional national support and oversight; implementation by July 2023.
HM Treasury