Hospitals not treating enough patients to keep up with demand

The NHS waiting list in England had a small increase in the last month, experts warning hospitals do not deal with enough patients to meet demand.

At the end of June, the list amounted to 7.37 million, an increase of 10,000 in May.

Although it is still down on the figure of 7.62 million from last year, the internal documents observed by the BBC suggest that a factor is that patients are removed from the list without being treated. This can happen legitimately when patients pay for private treatment or recover – but experts say that the NHS has trouble following.

The government said it was trying to make sure that all patients who need care get it as soon as possible.

The NHS has been encouraged to eliminate patients who do not need to be on the waiting list, described as “validation” by civil servants, for several years.

Financial incentives are paid for the number of patients removed and may also include deceased patients.

It can make services more effective because it means that hospitals do not unnecessarily pursue patients who no longer need treatment.

Internal documents have shown in April and May, the waiting list was reduced by 100,000 by weeding patients. Without that, the list would have increased.

The Nuffield Trust reflection group said the actual number could be even higher.

Its analysis has shown an average of more than 200,000 moves per month in the past two years. The reflection group said that, in addition to validation, IT errors could mean that some patients are automatically deleted by mistake, creating an additional waiting list that does not appear in the figures.

Dr. Becks Fisher, of Nuffield Trust, said: “It would be easy to assume that recent reductions in the waiting list are due to the NHS dealing with a greater number of patients each month, but our analysis shows that the presentation of progress in this way is a mirage.

“The NHS always treats fewer patients than referred.”

She said that if this “validation” exercise of the waiting list was “absolutely” the right thing to do in many cases, there was necessary to be greater transparency and an understanding of what is happening behind the scenes.

The government said that validation moves were only a small factor in the progress made on the waiting list, stressing that the NHS still managed to treat a growing number of patients.

Screening of the waiting list through the validation process was vital and ultimately improves productivity, they support.

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Health and Social Care said: “Our desire to clean the huge backlog of the waiting list which we have inherited understands that all patients receive the right treatment as quickly as possible.”