NHS England has told integrated care boards they need to slow down elective referrals dramatically – nearly eliminating year-on-year growth – with high-profile waiting list targets under threat.
Glen Burley, the NHS transformation executive team’s financial reset and accountability director, said the year-on-year increase in demand in 2025-26 needed to be just 0.2%, compared to a forecasted 1.8%.
His letter to Integrated Care Board (ICB) chief executives, sent on Friday and seen by HSJ, set out “expectations” for ICBs on elective care demand management. It came as new data revealed the waiting list had grown for the first time in seven months.
Mr Burley said: “The elective care referral to treatment and cancer expectations for 2025-2026 require a significant step up in performance from the last few years, and, given the financial constraints in the system this year, the improvement can’t simply be delivered through additional capacity.”
The message reminds leaders that the single elective care target for ICBs proposed under the new national performance and assessment framework is the annual change in waiting list size.
Source: HSJ, 22 May 2025
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