£14bn plan to reduce NHS cancer backlogs in England is failing, MPs say

A £14bn plan to reduce NHS backlogs caused by Covid is failing to meet targets, with cancer waiting times at their worst-ever levels, parliament’s spending watchdog has said.

A report by the Commons’ public accounts committee said NHS England’s three-year recovery programme for elective and cancer care, agreed in 2022, was already “falling short” in its first year and expressed serious doubts that the wider plan would be achieved on time.

MPs found that although the first target was to eliminate two-year waits for elective care by July 2022, there were 2,600 patients who had been waiting more than two years in August 2022, and a record 7 million people on waiting lists in total.

The recovery programme was overoptimistic, the report said. “NHS England made unrealistic assumptions about the first year of recovery, including that there would be low levels of Covid-19 and minimal adverse effects from winter pressures.”

Read full story

Source: The Guardian, 1 March 2023