Sunak's Worsening NHS Pain Could Become Chronic

Figures from NHS England present a mixed picture of progress in dealing with the post-pandemic backlog. Rishi Sunak has made the reduction in waiting lists one of his five key pledges for progress in 2023, but what success actually means isn't entirely clear.

- SEAN O'GRADY

What's the good news?

The prime minister was so pleased with at least one of the metrics that he tweeted: "I promised I would cut NHS waiting lists and we are delivering. Reducing 18-month waits by over 90 per cent is huge progress. We still have work to do, but backed by record government investment and the ongoing efforts of the NHS, I am confident we will get patients the care they need more quickly."

Of course, there are two ways of looking at that perfectly correct and fairly presented statistic. One is that it compares very favourably with the ugly peak in delays for routine care such as knee or hip replacements of more than 18 months, which reached nearly 125,000 in September 2021 (against some 10,000 now). But critics say it is still a scandal that the NHS target to eliminate such long queues has still been missed, that it should never have grown so large in the first place, and the government is failing on other key metrics.

What's the less good news?

Most of the other data. The Independent reports the disturbing revelation that hospitals are failing to tackle spiralling children's surgery waiting lists as the backlog hits more than 400,000 for the first time. Leaked documents show children's waiting lists for both inpatient and outpatient care are "increasing at double the rate of adults". Overall, those waiting to begin hospital treatment at all (in England) actually hit a record high, at more than seven million.