Recommendation 21

In response to our question about improving areas that have seen long-term underperformance, sometimes dating back to before the pandemic, NHSE told us that it had sent teams into some areas to support and challenge them.42 The National Audit Office report showed that the proportion of waiting patients who are in scope of the target to eliminate 78-week waits by April 2023 ranges from 2% to 20%, depending on the part of the country. This means that the challenge of meeting the target is vastly harder for some parts of the NHS than others.43 Key dependencies including workforce planning