Waiting time failure expected
The government is improving its target results
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Wednesday, 02, Jan 2008 02:10
The government is expected to miss its target on cutting waiting times in the NHS, a thinktank claims.
A report from Civitas today says only 77 per cent of patients will be avoiding a delay of 18 weeks or more between referral from a GP and treatment by the target deadline of this December.
It criticises the government's reliance on targets as a means of driving change and instead expresses hope that the introduction of competition will encourage all providers to improve.
"It must now be down to primary care trusts [PCTs] and GPs to encourage choice and competition to ensure the window of opportunity that has been provided isn't missed," report author James Gubb said.
The Department of Health insisted it was "confident" its target for December 2008 will be met, however.
"Latest figures show that over half of patients admitted for treatment and three-quarters of patients whose treatment did not require a hospital admission waited 18 weeks or less," a spokesperson said.
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More on healthhere.