Expanded seven-day health centers to tackle NHS waiting times in England
Patients in England will be offered an extra 500,000 appointments a year through seven-day health centers under plans to tackle long waiting times, as ministers warned the NHS could collapse like Woolworths without major reforms.
Millions of people will have access to checks, tests and scans closer to home as the health service expands the number of community diagnostic centers (CDCs) open 12 hours a day, seven days a week.
Seventeen new and expanded surgical centers across the country will start operating by June to get more patients treated faster as part of a series of proposals to be outlined by Keir Starmer on Monday.
Hospitals and GP practices will also be instructed to increase the use of technology such as remote monitoring and artificial intelligence tools to avoid unnecessary appointments and admissions. The NHS app will be overhauled to give patients more choice.
“NHS backlogs have increased dramatically in recent years, leaving millions of patients languishing on waiting lists, often in pain or fear,” the Prime Minister said. “Life on hold. Potentially unfulfilled.
“This elective reform plan will deliver on our promise to eliminate the backlog. Millions of additional appointments. More choice and convenience for patients. The staff can once again provide the care they so desperately want.”
Starmer will confirm details of the plan, first revealed by The Guardian on Friday, after publicly pledging last year that 92% of patients would be seen within 18 weeks by July 2029.
The shake-up will allow patients to get direct referrals for tests and scans for a range of ear, nose and throat, gynaecological, urological, bowel and lung conditions – without first consulting a doctor.
Thousands of patients will be offered a ‘same-day service’, with follow-up consultations on the same day as their scans or tests, allowing more people to start treatment or get the all-clear faster.
A major expansion of reserved elective capacity in the NHS will also mean that routine care, such as hip and knee replacement operations, will be protected from winter pressures and future pandemics.
On Sunday, Wes Streeting warned that the NHS could ‘go the Woolies way’ unless it was brought ‘into the 21st century’ through reforms.
The Health Secretary said the elective reform plan was aimed at ensuring the healthcare system does not collapse, as major retailer Woolworths did after the 2008 financial crisis.
Streeting said the government was placing “heavy emphasis on reform, not just investment” as the NHS faced an “existential” challenge.
Health experts welcomed the push to cut NHS waiting lists, but warned that digital innovations should not “create new barriers” or “come at the cost of excluding those without smartphones”.
Saffron Cordery, the interim chief executive of NHS Providers, said health leaders are keen to work with ministers to tackle the care backlog caused by years of under-investment and “severe staff shortages”, but warned that NHS trusts are failing every year face “enormous operational and financial challenges”. day”.
Doctors told the Guardian on Friday they were not convinced Starmer’s plans would succeed, as the NHS staffing crisis meant there were insufficient staff to quickly reduce waiting lists, and if it did not save the NHS emergency response at the same time would derail efforts to improve routine care.