Smoothing the way to the 18 week target
 The first biannual census of diagnostic waiting times across the NHS is underway. The census will run for two years, with the aim of recording how many patients are waiting for diagnostic tests and how long they are waiting.
“Recording this information is an essential step towards understanding the scale of the challenge that needs to be addressed by the NHS in order to deliver the 18 week target,” said a Department of Health spokesperson.
Further initiatives aimed at smoothing the way to the 18 week target include the selection of eight ‘pioneer’ health communities from across England to work on the development of simple and practical short-term measurement systems to capture and record referral-to-treatment times. The pioneer sites are East Kent, Gateshead, Huntingdonshire, King's, North Nottinghamshire, Oldham, Royal Devon and Exeter, and South Bedfordshire. Later efforts are expected to include identifying and removing hurdles in that part of the patient pathway between referral and decision to treat.
A free, subscription-only e-newsletter is published monthly by the DH 18 weeks delivery programme team.
Back | Top
|
