Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 9
9
We sought reassurance that all additional funding would be well spent and asked for examples...
Conclusion
We sought reassurance that all additional funding would be well spent and asked for examples of the measurable improvements that we could reasonably expect to see. We heard generally from the Department that with the additional £8 billion recovery funding it wanted to restore activity to the highest level possible and that the £5.9 billion of capital funding would enable a total of 9 million additional health checks, scans and procedures by 2024. More specifically, NHSE&I stated that in the second half of 2021–22 it would spend £700 million to create additional theatres, surgical hubs and diagnostic facilities and to start the separation of urgent and elective care so that urgent care is less able to disrupt elective care.20 It said these actions together would increase the number of beds available for elective care by 566 by March 2022.21 This is welcome but very small in scale: for comparison, the number of general and acute beds available daily between November 2020 and September 2021 was on average around 86,000 beds.22 12 Q28 13 Health and Social Care Committee, Clearing the backlog caused by the pandemic, ninth report of session 2021–22, HC 599, para 5 14 Q31 15 NHS England & NHS Improvement, Delivery plan for tackling the COVID-19 backlog of elective care, February 2022 16 Q100 17 C&AG’s Report, pages 36, 40 18 Q40 19 Q44 20 Qq 46, 47 21 Q43 22 C&AG’s Report, page 32 NHS backlogs and waiting times in England 11 Recovery planning and workforce
Government Response
Not Addressed
HM Government
Not Addressed
2.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: Spring 2023 2.2 The government published the Elective Recovery Plan which set out the goals for tackling the elective care and cancer backlogs over the course of the next 3 years. These goals include that waits of longer than a year for elective care are eliminated by March 2025 (aside from specific specialties or due to patient choice) and that 95% of patients needing a diagnostic test receive it within six weeks by March 2025. On cancer, local systems have also been asked to return the number of people waiting more than 62 days from an urgent referral back to pre-pandemic levels by March 2023. The plan is backed by a funding settlement including multi-year capital investment in diagnostics, elective capacity and technology. The investment in diagnostics, elective capacity and technology will all help improve resilience in the longer term. Community Diagnostic Centres (CDCs) will deliver additional, digitally connected, diagnostic capacity in England, providing patients with a coordinated set of diagnostic tests in the community in as few visits as possible, enabling an accurate and fast diagnosis on a range of a clinical pathways. NHSE will deliver up to 100 more community diagnostic centres across the country by 2025. Further detail on this will be set out as plans are finalised and approved, cross-government where appropriate. 2.3 In addition, the published NHS operational planning guidance gives further detail on the deployment of resource in support of these plans. The proposed update to the LTP and the subsequent NHS planning guidance for 2023-24 and 2024-25 will set out further detail when they are published.