Hospitals in England are displayed on unlimited reward payments to remove people who decide and do not need to cure their waiting lists amid warnings that thousands of patients who need them are still facing unacceptable delays.
The waiting list for hospital treatment decreased for the sixth month in a row in February, according to the data published on Thursday.
But health experts have warned that cancer patients in particular are still suffering from the devastating waiting for biological treatment and that the long waiting in A& E was higher than the same point last year.
Trying to reduce waiting lists and editing consultants to see the most needy, NHS The confidence boxes were requested this week to “check the validity” of the entire waiting list.
This will include reviewing each patient and removing any person who can be treated elsewhere or does not need an appointment with a specialist. Those whose symptoms have already been reduced or have already used special health care to undergo surgery, for example, will be removed as well.
Hospitals will receive a “incentive boost” for every patient who removes, and a 5 % -paying ceiling is canceled from the confidence waiting list, according to the documents that the guardian sees. This means that there is no limit to the payments that NHS boxes can receive to take patients from their legs.
NHS analysis suggests that about 300,000 people in the waiting list do not require optional care or treatment.
The strategy is likely to raise concerns among the patient’s charities that some people may be removed incorrectly. NHS sources said that the patients would not be removed until they spoke to a hospital team member and that the doctor had reviewed their case. Any patient who has been removed will receive a letter and his doctor is notified.
The figures showed that the total waiting list consists of an estimated 7.40 meters related to 6.24 million patients at the end of February – a decrease of 7.43 million remedies and 6.25 million patients at the end of January.
Among the urgently referred patients to suspected cancer, 80.2 % was diagnosed or excluded within 28 days in February. This increased from 73.4 % in the previous month and was the highest since the goal was presented in April 2021.
However, the percentage of patients who have been waiting for more than 62 days of the referral of suspected cancer, or the upgrade of the consultant, to the first final cancer treatment was 67.0 %, decreased slightly from 67.3 %. Government and NHS England I set a goal in March 2026 to get this number up to 75 %.
Michel Mitchell, CEO cancer “Although progress is made to diagnose patients sooner, today’s data shows that people are still facing unacceptable delays to reach the care of vital cancer patients in England,” said the research in the United Kingdom.
Pat Price, an oncologist and head of radiotherapy in the United Kingdom, said that patients continued to suffer “the consequences of delayed or refused to reach life -saving treatment.”
In emergency departments, 75 % of patients were seen within four hours last month, up from 73.4 % in February. However, the number that awaits at least four hours of the admission decision has increased slightly, to 133,957 in March, up from 131,237 in February.
Dr. Tim Coxley, the former direct president of the Acute Medicine Association, said about the 12 -hour waiting. Corridor care In hospitals it was a national scandal.
“The number increased by 8.8 % last year at 46,766 and we must strike the fact that these patients will be at risk, often the elderly, who face the risks of this humiliating situation.”
Professor Sir Stephen Boris, National Medical Director of NHS England, said the numbers showed “signs of real progress through a set of services.” “We have started to see a real difference,” said Wes Street Minister.
