Policy Exchange: A Wait on your Mind? A realistic proposal for tackling the elective backlog (22 July 2021)

Summary

The waiting list for elective treatment in the NHS in England has reached an unprecedented level, with one in ten people – over 5.3 million – now waiting for a routine procedure. This report published by Policy Exchange sets out the scale of the challenge, opportunities to reform the existing approach to elective care and their proposed elective care recovery plan.

Content

In this report Policy Exchange set out recommendations which call on the NHS and Government to:

• Adopt a relentless focus on ensuring that unknown clinical risks are accounted for by prioritising patients who currently lack a diagnosis.
• Improve transparency, by showing patients how clinical prioritisation methodologies are being applied to them and supporting them whilst they wait.
• Learn the positive lessons of the pandemic in embracing new ways of working across the NHS and with its partners.
• Accept we need to adapt the public conversation around NHS performance relating to elective care to make it more candid, accountable, and open in an era of unprecedented waiting times.