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Found 500 results
  1. Content Article
    In this King's Fund analysis, Margot Kuylen and Dan Wellings consider the results of the Health Insight Survey and find that while waiting times have improved, for many the experience of waiting hasn’t. When asked how they would rate their overall experience of waiting for their hospital appointment, nearly half (46%) of respondents said it was poor. Crucially, this doesn’t just reflect dissatisfaction with the length of the wait. When asked in a separate question whether they were dissatisfied with the communication about their wait, a similar proportion (44%) of respondents said they were dissatisfied (a further 29% said they were neither satisfied nor dissatisfied and only 27% said they were satisfied).
  2. News Article
    At least one in 10 A&E patients wait more than 24 hours at many hospitals, despite NHS England telling trusts to adopt a “zero tolerance” approach to such long waits, new figures have revealed. HSJ has obtained data revealing the A&Es with the highest prevalence of waits exceeding 24 hours. It shows that at nine hospitals, at least 10 per cent of A&E patients wait 24 hours from the time they arrive to when they leave the emergency department. This rises to as much as 17.6 per cent at Royal Sussex County Hospital – the highest proportion in England. However, Royal Sussex, as with many of the worst-affected A&Es, did nonetheless see improvement in its 24-hour waits from 2024-25 to 2025-26. Around half (46%) of A&Es failed to improve on their longest waits in that time, according to data released under the Freedom of Information Act. That is despite NHSE’s Getting It Right First Time programme telling trusts earlier this year there should be “zero tolerance” for A&E waits lasting more than 24 hours. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 10 June 2026
  3. News Article
    More than 1,300 patients a month in England are dying needlessly due to long A&E waits, a tenfold rise in a decade, figures suggest. There were more than 300 deaths linked to long waits every week in 2025, up from 30 a week in 2015, according to analysis by the Royal College of Emergency Medicine. The RCEM’s president, Dr Ian Higginson, said he wondered how many more deaths it would take before there was a meaningful plan to tackle the crisis. “We have to ask why this awful problem isn’t the subject of relentless focus and political conversation. The number of deaths linked to long stays in our emergency departments explicitly show the system is failing the patients it is meant to be caring for,” he said. Higginson said: “As an emergency doctor, it’s heartbreaking that patients arrive to our emergency departments in their time of need, and we can’t do our jobs properly because we are full. To make things worse we are being asked to focus on the least sick patients to try and marginally improve headline statistics, rather than on those who need our services the most. “It’s frustrating that we continue to see a lack of solutions designed to tackle the root causes of the problem. Instead, we are fobbed off with recycled ideas that haven’t ever worked, performance data that doesn’t reflect reality, and a focus on perceived ‘quick fixes’.” He added: “Whilst we welcome the government’s stated commitment to eliminate corridor care, until we prioritise patients who experience long waits for admission, we will not get to the bottom of the whole issue.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 8 June 2026
  4. Content Article
    The estimated number of deaths linked to long waits in Emergency Departments across England has surged almost tenfold over the past decade.  That’s according to new analysis published in the Royal College of Emergency Medicine’s (RCEM) ‘State of Emergency Medicine in England’ report, which conservatively estimates that there were 15,860 excess deaths associated with long waiting times in English EDs in 2025.  That’s the lives of 305 people lost every week.  While the number of deaths is slightly lower than 2024 (16,644), further analysis reveals that the estimated mortality figure increased almost tenfold when compared to 2015 (1,657). RCEM’s report examines the scale of overcrowding in EDs and the impact this is having on patient safety and staff. Drawing on national data, research and frontline evidence from clinicians, it highlights how long waits, high bed occupancy and a lack of patient flow continue to lead to overcrowded emergency departments.  Long waits are closely linked to an increased chance of death within the following 30 days.   Further analysis for the previous year concerningly reveals nearly half a million people (489,138) waited 24 hours or more in EDs across England. This has increased by around 150,000 patients in just 3 years.  
  5. News Article
    A record number of people are waiting for a diagnostic test on the NHS, triggering fears that delays in accessing CT and MRI scans could endanger patients’ health. A total of 1.92 million patients in England are waiting to have a test to diagnose their illness such as by an ultrasound scan, assessment of their hearing, bone scan or various tests for cancer. Demand for tests is outstripping the NHS’s ability to meet it and one in five of those on the waiting list – more than 400,000 people – are having to wait longer than the supposed six-week maximum, an analysis of diagnostic services in England has found. The rise in the waiting list for diagnostic tests contrasts sharply with the NHS’s recent success in cutting the backlog for planned hospital care to 7.1 million, which was 500,000 fewer than in July 2025. The Patients Association voiced deep unease at the situation and warned that patients’ health can deteriorate while they are waiting to have the diagnostic test needed to kickstart their treatment. “A diagnostic test is not the end of a patient’s journey – it is the beginning. Without it, treatment cannot start, conditions deteriorate, and what might have been caught early becomes something far harder to treat,” said Rachel Power, its chief executive. “When more than one in five patients is waiting beyond the NHS’s own six-week maximum, and median waiting times have risen by more than half since before the pandemic, that is deeply concerning for patients’ health. “Every week of delay is a week a condition can worsen, a patient’s ability to live day-to-day can diminish, and their anxiety about what is wrong can grow,” she added. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 7 June 2026
  6. News Article
    Cancer waiting time pressures have led an acute trust to withdraw an offer to treat children with complex needs in its theatres. Oxford University Hospitals Foundation Trust is struggling with the target – which requires 75% of cancer patients to be treated within 62 days of referral. Its performance averaged 65% during the third quarter of 2025-26, placing it 91st out of 118 acute providers. The acute trust has previously allowed dental services provider Oxford Health FT to use theatres at its Horton General Hospitals to treat paediatric patients whose procedure required a general anaesthetic. This access has now been stood down until at least October 2026. OHFT said the suspension would “significantly impact our waiting lists”. As of April, 145 children were waiting for extraction at the Horton. Of those, 49 were already waiting over 18 weeks, and the longest wait was already five months. Children on the Horton list cannot safely receive care in a standard dental practice due to complex needs – such as learning disabilities, neurodiversity, behavioural issues, medical conditions and phobias – and need to be treated under general anaesthetic. Oxford Health told HSJ it is “using its adult theatre lists for children where appropriate” to mitigate the impact of the suspension on children’s waits. This list contains adults with special needs who also cannot be treated in a standard setting, who also face long waits for treatment. Most community dental services, which deliver care to vulnerable patients, are not part of an acute trust. Providers are therefore reliant on arrangements with acute providers to access theatres for general anaesthetic sessions. British Dental Association chair Eddie Crouch told HSJ: “Many dentists doing these extractions are fighting a losing battle for priority. Year-long waiting lists have too often been the norm for vulnerable young patients, many struggling to eat, to sleep, and to learn. We shouldn’t be forced to play a zero-sum game for theatre space.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 5 June 2026
  7. Content Article
    More information about "Top picks: Key resources about diabetes"
    At Patient Safety Learning we believe that sharing insights and learning is vital to improving outcomes and reducing harm. That's why we created the hub; to provide a space for people to come together and share their experiences, resources and good practice examples. Diabetes is a condition that causes the amount of glucose in a person's blood to be too high. When you have type 1 diabetes, your body can’t make any insulin at all, whereas with type 2, you either can’t make enough insulin, or it can’t work properly. There are also other types of diabetes including gestational diabetes, which some women develop during pregnancy, maturity onset diabetes of the young (MODY) and latent autoimmune diabetes in adults (LADA). It is important that people with diabetes are supported to maintain good blood glucose control through diet, insulin and other diabetes medications, to prevent both acute and long-term complications. We’ve selected our top picks of useful resources about diabetes. Self-management is perhaps the most important aspect of treating diabetes effectively, so we've included some resources aimed at helping patients manage their diabetes too. 1 HSSIB reports The Health Services Safety Investigation Body (HSSIB) has published a series of reports considering the self-administration of insulin by people with diabetes mellitus. Each report focuses on specific groups of people who, due to their circumstances, may be at increased risk of harm because of the way they self-administer insulin. Insulin: supporting safe self-administration for patients in the community with a mental health problem Insulin: supporting safe self-administration for patients in the community with a disability Insulin: supporting patients to safe administration in inpatient settings 2 Decoding diabetes research – an innovative approach that makes scientific knowledge accessible to everyone In this blog, Jazz Sethi, Founder and Director of the Diabesties Foundation and part of the global team that developed D-Coded, discusses the need for the resource and outlines how it will help people living with diabetes to better understand and manage their condition. 3 Leading for patient safety: a conversation with Partha Kar Partha Kar, National Specialty Advisor for NHS England, has led work that has had an enormous impact for patients and for patient safety. In this video podcast, Steph O'Donohue from Patient Safety Learning talks to Partha about his leadership style and how it has helped him drive forward significant change in an often challenging context. 4 Decision support tool: making a decision about managing type 1 diabetes This leaflet from NHS England aims to help people with type 1 diabetes decide between the different technologies available to manage diabetes. It contains summaries of devices available and infographics outlining eligibility criteria for continuous glucose monitors (CGM), insulin pumps and hybrid-closed loop systems. 5 10 Year Vision: For diabetes prevention, care and treatment This report from Diabetes UK sets out a clear plan for the UK government about how it can improve health outcomes and tackle inequality for people living with diabetes by 2035. 6 D1abasics: Equipping staff to care safely for inpatients with diabetes The inpatient diabetes team at University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust recently launched D1abasics, an initiative that aims to improve inpatient care for people with diabetes. In this blog, Diabetes Consultant Mayank Patel and Inpatient Diabetes Specialist Nurse Paula Johnston outline the approach and explain how it will equip staff across all specialties with the basic knowledge to care safely for people with diabetes in hospital. 7 Improving diabetes care in inpatient mental health settings Despite the prevalence of diabetes amongst individuals with Serious Mental Illness (SMI), diabetes care is not currently audited within mental health inpatient settings as it audited in physical health settings. This project piloted an audit to assess the diabetes care within London NHS Mental Health Trusts. 8 Diabetes tech: Do national aspirations and local practice align? In this blog, a person with type 1 diabetes describes their recent experience upgrading their insulin pump, a medical device used to continuously deliver insulin instead of taking multiple daily injections. They describe how communication issues and gaps in staff knowledge led to a significant delay in accessing the pump, which caused them significant stress. They also ask whether recent announcements about increased access to diabetes technology over the next few years will match up to the reality experienced by people with diabetes accessing care at local healthcare organisations. 9 NHS England - Language Matters: language and diabetes The language that healthcare professionals use to talk about diabetes can have a profound impact on how people living with diabetes, and those who care for them, experience their condition and feel about living with it. This guidance by NHS England sets out practical examples of language that will encourage positive interactions with people living with diabetes. When people with diabetes feel encouraged and empowered to manage their condition, it has been shown to make a difference to their health outcomes. The examples in ‘Language Matters’ are based on research and supported by a simple set of principles. 10 Key things to remember if you use injectable medication to treat your diabetes This checklist by TREND Diabetes outlines the steps patients should take to ensure they inject their insulin or other diabetes medication correctly. It explains the importance of taking steps such as moving injection sites and changing needles, and outlines how failing to do this can affect blood glucose control. 11 Improving safety for diabetic inpatients: 4 key steps In this video, Partha Kar, National Specialty Advisor for Diabetes, shares four steps to improve safety for inpatients with diabetes, based on information from the National Diabetes Inpatient Audit. He also highlights key resources to help staff improve their knowledge of diabetes and understand how to offer the safest care to people with diabetes when they are staying in hospital. 12 Diabetes technology is life-changing, but we need to be prepared when it fails In this blog, Andrew Stroud talks about his family's experiences supporting their daughter, Bia, to manage her type 1 diabetes. He describes the huge value of technology in improving diabetes management and reducing the mental burden of the condition on people with diabetes and their parents and carers. However, like all technology, medical devices for diabetes can fail, and Andrew highlights the need to be prepared for this situation to ensure the person with diabetes is safe while they cannot use the devices they rely on every day. 13 How safe are closed loop artificial pancreas systems? Closed-loop artificial pancreas systems are self-regulating systems for administering insulin to patients with type 1 diabetes. They allow for tighter blood glucose control and reduce the decision-making burden for people with diabetes. In this blog, Lotty Tizzard, Patient Safety Learning's Content and Engagement Manager, takes a look at the benefits and potential patient safety risks associated with closed-loop artificial pancreas systems (APS). People with diabetes have developed the algorithm that runs these systems and made it freely available to anyone wanting to build their own DIY artificial pancreas. This has spurred the medical tech industry to develop commercial systems, which will make the technology more widely available. But there are challenges in ensuring accessibility to all people with type 1 diabetes who would benefit from the technology, and there are questions about regulation and liability. 14 A systematic approach to insulin safety (video series by Communications PharmSocNI) This video series looks at systematic approaches to insulin safety, including: Human Factors - A Journey of Discovery; SEIPS – The Swiss Army Knife Approach; and Summary & Applying the Learning. 15 System-wide strategies for better diabetes care chapter 1: Evidence approved medicines and chapter 2: Ensuring equitable access to glucose sensing technology for type 2 insulin users Two reports from Public Policy Projects (PPP). Chapter 1 calls for changes in the use of approved medicines to improve diabetes care in the UK and chapter 2 highlights the opportunities and challenges brought by CGM technology to type 2 insulin users and other patient groups. 16 National Diabetes Foot Care Audit 2018 to 2023 Ulceration of the foot in people living with diabetes presents significant challenges, including emotional, physical and financial costs, and is associated with increased risk of both amputation and death. It affects between 1 and 2% of all people with diabetes each year and its management accounts for approximately 1% of the total NHS budget. The aim of the National Diabetes Foot Care Audit is to measure factors associated with increased risk of ulcer onset and adverse ulcer outcomes, and to share information relating to best clinical practice. 17 Diabulimia: what is it and why have so few people heard of it? Type 1 diabetes with disordered eating (T1DE), or diabulimia as some experts call it, is a serious eating disorder that people with type 1 diabetes can develop where the person reduces or stops taking their insulin as a way of managing their weight. The condition can be life-threatening. Although studies are limited, it’s estimated that eating disorders affect more than a third of patients with type 1 diabetes. This episode of the Healthcare Improvement podcast looks at diabulimia and a new toolkit published by SIGN, part of Healthcare Improvement Scotland, which sets out recommendations to raise awareness and provide guidance on how best to support people living with the diabulimia. 18 NHS England: Children and young people diabetes toolkit This toolkit is designed to support integrated care systems (ICSs) to design, plan, and deliver high-quality treatment and care for children and young adults aged 0-25 years with all types of diabetes. 19 Insulin therapy in primary care The management of insulin therapy requires knowledge of the type of diabetes it is being used for and appropriate dosing, as well as correct injection technique, to prevent complications and medication errors. Diabetes nursing specialist Debbie Hicks shares key points on the management of insulin therapy for nurses in primary care. 20 Handbook: Diabetes footcare in dark skin tones Covering essential topics such as physiology, history-taking, assessment techniques, and investigative methods, this handbook has been designed to provide essential information as well as quick tips to healthcare professionals to improve foot care for people with dark skin living with diabetes. Featuring clinical assessments and visual/audio guides, this handbook is the product of a unique collaboration across healthcare professional specialities, and with input from people living with diabetes. 21 Addressing racial inequalities in paediatric diabetes Dita Aswani and Fulya Mehta are both consultant paediatricians and NHS England national advisors for Children and Young adults’ (CYA) diabetes. In this blog, they outline racial inequalities that persist in paediatric diabetes and present five key areas for change. In summary they talk about what healthcare professionals can do to reduce inequalities through their own practice. Do you have a resource or story about diabetes to share? We’d love to hear about it - leave a comment below or join the hub to share your own post.
  8. News Article
    New figures have revealed a record surge in referrals to children and young people’s mental health services in March, alongside unprecedented waiting times. The charity YoungMinds, analysing NHS England data, reported 932,822 under-18s had an active mental health referral during the month. YoungMinds warned the data highlights the "sheer scale of the mental health emergency" facing youngsters. New referrals climbed 11% from February and were up 2% compared to the same time last year. The analysis also found that the average waiting time topped 300 days for the eighth consecutive month. Abigail Ampofo, interim chief executive at YoungMinds, said: “These alarming figures highlight the sheer scale of the mental health emergency. “While waiting lists for the treatment of physical health problems are going down, the time young people are spending trying to access specialist support for their mental health continues to rise. “So many pressures are harming young people’s mental health, including academic demands, rising living costs and inequality. “We need more investment in mental health services, but we also need to tackle these root causes of poor mental health. Read full story Source: The Independent, 28 May 2026
  9. News Article
    Twenty-one trusts delivered their entire 2025-26 elective improvement in March alone, analysis shows, prompting concerns about the “fragility and sustainability” of the NHS’s waiting list recovery. The NHS’s overall performance on the 18-week standard rose by 2.7 percentage points in March – a very large month-on-month improvement – to secure its 65% year-end target. HSJ analysis of official data reveals that 21 providers (nearly 20%) of general acute trusts that were able to report improvement in their 18-week performance between April 2025 and March 2026 were in fact entirely reliant on steep gains in the final month. Between April 2025 and February 2026, the share of their patients treated within 18 weeks had fallen. Waiting list expert Barry Mulholland told HSJ that where trusts had “effectively delivered their entire annual recovery in March alone… that is extremely hard to achieve through ‘normal’ improvement activity”. Mr Mulholland, CEO of consultancy MBI Health, said: “It does not mean the gains are fake, but it does suggest fragility, risk, and raises questions about the overall sustainability. “Similarly, I would want to understand the changes that have been made by the trusts which made large structural improvements, to see what enabled the consistent improvement and if those changes can be replicated more widely.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 26 May 2026
  10. News Article
    The government has hit an interim target for speeding up hospital treatment in England. The goal was for 65% of patients to be treated within 18 weeks by March 2026 – and it hit that, but only just, with the figure reaching 65.3%. It was seen as the first stepping stone to hitting the 92% target by the end of the Parliament in 2029 – a key manifesto pledge of Labour's. The news came just hours before Wes Streeting resigned as health secretary, saying there needed to be a leadership challenge as he had lost confidence in the Prime Minister. Speaking before he resigned, he hailed the achievement – performance was below 59% when Labour came to power. He said: "It means we are right on track to deliver the fastest reduction in waiting times in the history of the NHS. "That is thanks to the government's investment, modernisation, and the remarkable efforts of staff right across the country. "Lots done, lots more to do." Read full story Source: BBC News, 14 May 2026
  11. Content Article
    Partnership working between Consultant Specialists and GPs is front and centre to the Government’s commitment to move patient care closer to home. Pre referral advice and guidance supports integrated care and peer to peer learning as well as service improvement. General Practices across the country already support advice and guidance pathways, which are intended to help to ensure patients receive care in the right place at the right time. However, advice and guidance pathways have workload implications for both general practice and secondary care. This document from NHS England gives more information about General Practice Requests for Advice and Guidance (A&G) pathway.
  12. News Article
    NHS England guidance suggesting adult services are the priority for bringing down long waits risks “failing” children, the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health has said. A senior paediatrician criticised advice issued by the health service on how to approach 18-week community targets introduced this month. Ronny Cheung, officer for health services at the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, told HSJ that proposing to “just focus on this group [adult musculoskeletal services] and ignore children – for all of the burden [that is on them] – is a bit of an admission of defeat and failing these children”. The NHS England guidance, which was published late last month, said: “Early progress in reducing 18-week waits is likely to be achieved through a focus on adult service lines, particularly the high-volume community musculoskeletal service line”. Meanwhile, it said the longest waits were “largely concentrated” in children and young people’s services, and “addressing these will require sustained, long-term effort”. But Dr Cheung said NHSE’s suggested approach rested on two misperceptions. “There’s a perception that children’s community waits are relatively speaking still quite small in comparison to the adult ones, and that’s not true,” he told HSJ. “The second slight misperception is that it is such an intractable problem that actually there’s no point in [services] focusing on that.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 23 April 2026
  13. News Article
    Amy-Jane Davies is on six NHS waiting lists and says constantly chasing for updates is taking over her life. She's waited 21 months for gynaecological surgery, which she said will likely result in her being referred for a more specialist operation - meaning another waiting list. Amy-Jane, who has endometriosis, is one of 43,120 on a gynaecology waiting list in Wales and one of 687,958 waiting for any type of treatment. She said her condition had affected her life in ways she "didn't imagine", from reducing her hours at work to deciding not to become a mother. With the Senedd election in Wales on 7 May, NHS waiting times are one of the challenges facing the next Welsh government. Amy-Jane, 30, from south Wales, was first diagnosed with endometriosis in 2018, a condition where cells similar to those in the lining of the womb grow in other parts of the body. Her symptoms range from abdominal cramping and severe bloating to migraines, fatigue, as well as bladder and bowel problems. "During Covid, the gynaecology waiting lists grew to eight to 10 years and at that point I knew there was just no way I could wait that long to get something done," she said. In 2021, Amy-Jane paid £4,000 for private surgery with help from her mum and nan.
  14. News Article
    NHS England has rowed back on what was widely understood to be a new target for the proportion of patients it wanted “diverted” away from waiting lists, after accusations it was rationing care. The controversy surrounds how NHS England plans to ramp up the “advice and guidance” (A&G) model, which allows GPs to seek pre-referral advice from specialist clinicians, and is designed in part to reduce referrals. NHSE guidance published just last month said it would roll out a new model involving a “single point of access” (SPoA), that would “contribute to a diversion rate of at least 25% by March 2027 for at least 10 high volume specialties” in each area. Diverted patients are those who, after the A&G process, are managed in primary or community care instead of being put on the waiting list for secondary care. The guidance was widely interpreted as a 25% diversion rate target for these cohorts of patients. This sparked concern and vocal opposition among GP leaders and patient groups, and accusations of care rationing. However, in a letter to primary care issued late on Wednesday, NHSE said: “There is no national target for specialists, trusts or general practice to divert a fixed proportion of referrals away from hospital care.” Read full story Source: HSJ, 22 April 2026
  15. News Article
    At the height of Covid, hundreds of cancer patients had mastectomies without the reconstruction that would normally accompany them. They would eventually get the surgery, they were told – but for many that promise feels more meaningless by the day Every time she lifts her arms to get dressed or hang out her washing, Julie Ford gets a painful reminder of one of the most terrifying experiences of her life. At 7am one day in April 2021, she had gone into hospital, alone and wearing a mask, to have her right breast and lymph nodes removed in a bid to stop breast cancer from spreading. Later that day, still groggy from the anaesthetic, in pain and with surgical drains hanging from both sides of her chest, she had staggered to the door with the help of two nurses. She was eased into a friend’s car and driven home to fend for herself. While Julie’s breast had been removed, it was not reconstructed. Usually, both procedures are carried out in the same operation. But as reconstruction using tissue from the patient’s abdomen is a complex, eight-hour procedure requiring a large surgical team, it was considered “non-essential” and paused by most NHS trusts during the Covid-19 pandemic. Like hundreds of women with breast cancer who underwent urgent mastectomies without reconstruction in 2020 and 2021, Julie was assured she could have the procedure once Covid restrictions lifted. But five years later, Julie, now 62, is still waiting. A national shortage of specialist surgeons and theatre space, as well as the need to prioritise new cancer cases, means many women like her, who had breasts removed during lockdown, feel they have been abandoned. They live in daily physical discomfort and mental distress as they continue to await the reconstructions they were promised years ago. A 2024 study found at least 2,200 patients who have survived breast cancer, or who were at high risk of developing it, were waiting for surgery across 40 NHS centres in England, with an average wait of 2.5 years. And Wood fears there is little to encourage struggling hospitals to clear the backlog. Instead of investing resources into “expensive and lengthy” surgeries such as breast reconstructions, NHS trusts that want to reduce the size of their overall waiting list have an incentive to prioritise quick, simple operations where several patients can be ticked off the list in a short time, he says. “There are capacity issues, with growing demand and a shortage of theatre time and surgeons’ time, but to tackle it you need to have [NHS trust] management that is bothered to find a solution, not just sit on their hands.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 13 April 2026
  16. News Article
    A child spent more than two months in A&E following a breakdown of a care placement, in what the trust described as “one of the longest waits we’ve seen”. Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals Trust said the young person was at its Queen’s Hospital A&E for more than 70 days, while another was there for more than 30. They were both under the care of councils “outside our area”, and their care placements had broken down, the trust said. It has declined to say which councils. Both children had “complex behavioural needs” which meant they could not be moved on to children’s wards, the east London trust said. Speaking last week, it said the children had recently moved on to other placements. The trust has previously highlighted long waits for children under care at Queen’s A&E – including a wait of 44 days in 2024 – and said care placement breakdowns were the most common reason. Trust CEO Matthew Trainer said: “We’re seen as a place of safety for children and young people with mental health issues and/or challenging behavioural needs. This means several young people have experienced long waits for the right support in A&E. “It’s unacceptable and distressing for both patients and our staff, and something we’ve been discussing at our board meetings for several years, as well as working with mental health trusts and councils to see how we can reduce delays.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 9 April 2026
  17. News Article
    Public satisfaction with the NHS has risen for the first time since 2019, but people remain deeply frustrated with stubbornly long waits to receive GP, A&E or hospital care according to the latest annual British Society Attitudes survey. The proportion of voters in Britain satisfied with the way the NHS runs has increased from the record low of 21% seen last year to 26%. At the same time dissatisfaction with the health service fell 8% – the biggest drop since 1998 – although it remains high at 51%. However, delays in accessing care continue to cause public unhappiness. Most people are dissatisfied with the time it takes to get seen in A&E (66%), receive hospital care (63%) and get a GP appointment (58%). Only 14% are satisfied with A&E waiting times. Mark Dayan, head of public affairs at the Nuffield Trust, said: “These are still numbers that you would have thought were catastrophic in the 2010s. They’re still worse than they were even during the 90s, a period when the public was widely perceived to be very unhappy about the NHS.” Wes Streeting hailed the findings as proof that the NHS, which he said was “broken” when Labour won power in July 2024, was now “on the road to recovery”. The health secretary will cite them as evidence of progress in a speech on Wednesday in which he will set out plans to improve care at five badly performing health trusts. Mark Dayan, head of public affairs at the Nuffield Trust, said: “These are still numbers that you would have thought were catastrophic in the 2010s. They’re still worse than they were even during the 90s, a period when the public was widely perceived to be very unhappy about the NHS.” The rise in satisfaction “is a glimmer on the horizon, but the public mood remains dark”, he added. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 25 March 2026
  18. Content Article
    The NHS has seen a 6 percentage point increase in public satisfaction, the first rise since 2019, according to the latest findings from the gold-standard survey of public attitudes to the NHS and social care, analysed by the Nuffield Trust and The King’s Fund and surveyed by NatCen. Key findings Satisfaction with the NHS In 2025, 26% of British adults were ‘very’ or ‘quite’ satisfied with the way in which the NHS runs – a statistically significant 6 percentage point increase from 2024. Around half of respondents (51%) were dissatisfied with the NHS in 2025, a statistically significant fall of 8 percentage points compared to 2024 when it was 59%. This is the first increase in satisfaction since 2019, and the largest fall in dissatisfaction in more than 25 years. People under 35 (20%), supporters of Reform (20%) and people in Wales (18%) were significantly less satisfied with the NHS than the survey average. Despite the increase in satisfaction only 16% of respondents thought the standard of NHS care would improve in the next 5 years compared to 53% who said they expected care to get worse. Satisfaction with different NHS services Satisfaction with GP services was 35% and dissatisfaction was 45%. Neither was a statistically significant change on the previous year. Just over 1 in 5 respondents (22%) said they were satisfied with NHS dentistry, with 54% saying they were dissatisfied. These are similar results to the previous year. 22% of respondents said they were satisfied with A&E services. Dissatisfaction was 53%. In 2024, 19% said they were satisfied with A&E services, although the change is not statistically significant. 37% of respondents were satisfied with inpatient and outpatient hospital care, an increase of 5 percentage points since 2024, although not statistically significant. 29% were dissatisfied – no change on last year. Attitudes to NHS standards, access and staffing Half of respondents (50%) were satisfied with the quality of NHS care in 2025, and 28% were dissatisfied. There was no statistically significant change since 2024. Only a minority of respondents were satisfied with waiting times for GP appointments (27%), hospital appointments (16%) and in A&E (14%). There were no statistically significant changes compared to last year. Only 12% agreed that ‘there are enough staff in the NHS these days’. 71% disagreed. There was no significant change compared to 2024. Attitudes to NHS financing and efficiency 9% of respondents said that the government spent too much or far too much money on the NHS, 22% said that it spent about the right amount and 66% said that it spent too little or far too little. There were no statistically significant changes compared to 2024. Only 13% of respondents agreed that the NHS spends the money it has efficiently. 55% disagreed with this statement. There was no change compared to 2024. When asked about government choices on tax and spending on the NHS, the public remain closely divided between raising taxes and spending more on the NHS (45%) and keeping taxation and spending at the same level (43%). Only 8% would choose to cut taxes and spend less on the NHS. There was no statistically significant change since 2024. Supporters of the Green party (70%) and the Labour party (57%) were significantly more likely to support higher taxes and higher NHS spending than supporters of Reform (32%) and the Conservative party (30%). NHS priorities and principles On being asked what the top three most important priorities for the NHS should be, both making it easier to get a GP appointment and improving A&E waiting times were selected as top priorities by 46% of respondents, followed by 45% for waiting times for planned operations and 43% for increasing the number of NHS staff. People aged 18–64 were more likely than those aged 65 and over to prioritise A&E waiting times (48% vs 38%) and increasing NHS staff (46% vs 35%) whereas those aged 65 and over prioritised prevention and staying healthy (48% vs 36%). As in previous years, a large majority of respondents agreed that the founding principles of the NHS should ‘definitely’ or ‘probably’ apply in 2025: that the NHS should be free of charge when you need to use it (89%), the NHS should primarily be funded through taxes (81%) and the NHS should be available to everyone (74%). There has been some decrease across the past five years in the proportion who think these principles should ‘definitely’ or ‘probably’ apply since the questions were first asked in 2021. The greatest decrease over time has been support for the principle that ‘the NHS should be available to everyone’. Support for the principle that the NHS should be available to everyone varied significantly by supporters of different political parties, with 68% of Labour supporters agreeing this principle should ‘definitely’ apply compared to 45% of Conservative supporters and 30% of Reform supporters. Social care In 2025, 14% of respondents said they were satisfied with social care. 49% were dissatisfied with social care – a statistically significant decrease from 2024 when this figure was 53%. The top three priorities for social care were helping people stay independent at home for as long as possible (46%), making social care more affordable to those who need it (45%) and improving the quality of social care services (44%). When asked about government choices on tax and spending on social care, 51% said the government should keep taxes and spending on social care at the same level as now. 38% said the government should increase taxes and spend more on social care. 6% said the government should reduce taxes and spend less on social care. Support for increasing taxes and spending more on social care was lower than for the NHS – it was 45% for the NHS. The difference was statistically significant.
  19. News Article
    Waiting time information in the NHS App has been overhauled after causing “confusion, anxiety and mistrust” among patients, HSJ has learned. NHS England changed the app’s waiting information page – which initially showed a mean average time – after it led to many patients calling hospitals to ask why they were waiting longer. Alongside the mean average referral-to-treatment time for their trust, a new metric has now been added to the page, which shows “eight in 10 patients are seen within X weeks”. A design history document, published by NHSE this month, admitted the previous version – introduced more than two years ago – was causing patients to believe they were seeing a personalised wait time, updated in real time. This caused “confusion, anxiety and mistrust” when the average date passed, but they had not been contacted or had an appointment. Many users also believed the waiting time referred to their initial appointment, rather than treatment. NHSE said the initial information caused “increased call volumes and burden on frontline staff” as patients called hospitals for clarification. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 24 March 2026
  20. News Article
    NHS waiting lists in Wales have fallen to the lowest level in almost six years. The latest waiting time figures, published on March 19, show the average waiting time for treatment is now around 18 weeks – down from 23 weeks in August 2024 and the lowest since the pandemic started. Around 557,900 individual patients are currently on treatment waiting lists in Wales, the NHS Activity and Performance Summary: January and February 2026 shows. At the same time targets are being missed on ambulance times, waits in accident and emergency departments and for cancer treatment, the document also shows. Read full article. Source: Wales Online, 19 March 2026
  21. News Article
    Pharmacies are running out of stock for the meningitis B vaccine as concern rises and demand soars. The spike comes after the UK Health and Security Agency (UKHSA) confirmed it is now investigating 20 cases of meningitis in Kent during an “explosive” outbreak that has left two dead. Boots has implemented a queuing system for customers to enter the vaccination service page of its website, with a warning that demand for its menB jab is currently high. Superdrug has also created a waiting list for the vaccine, with a note on its website informing customers of a “national shortage” and adding “stock is limited”. It said it is “working with suppliers to secure more doses”. The high street pharmacy reported a 65-fold increase in demand compared to last week. Some pharmacies in Kent are also running out of supplies, according to Dr Leyla Hannbeck, CEO of the Independent Pharmacies Association. Read full story Source: The Independent, 18 March 2026
  22. News Article
    NHS England bosses are predicting they will get close enough to hitting 65% against the 18-week standard by March to declare victory against their main performance objective for this year, HSJ has learned. This would mark a significant improvement, around 2.5 percentage points, from the 61.5% for December, the most recent official data. Performance has flatlined at around this mark for the past six months. Senior figures cautioned they still had a difficult task balancing activity and finances in the final weeks of 2025-26, but they are increasingly optimistic about success against the government’s priority NHS target. Official figures for January, to be published on Thursday, will give a first indication of the impact of a £120m “elective sprint” funded by NHS England at late notice, for the final months of the year. One senior national figure told HSJ it was “a tricky time with final sprints to the line on elective, urgent and emergency care, and the money. But the fact that we are still in the running for all three feels very positive and motivational”. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 10 March 2026
  23. Content Article
    With financial constraints, record waiting lists and recent staff strikes, the role of being an NHS chief executive has arguably never been harder. But what impact is it having on those health service leaders? In recent months, Thea Stein has spoken to a number of NHS chief executives about the difficult choices they confront in their everyday work and the moral distress that may accompany those decisions. In this long read, Thea reveals what was said to her, and emphasises once more the importance of making the NHS a psychologically safe place to work.
  24. News Article
    Almost a third of people in England now use private dentistry, with a sharp rise in the number of poorer households forced to pay for fillings and extractions. The scarcity of NHS care means the proportion of people turning to private dental services jumped from 22% in 2023 to 32% late last year, the health service’s patient watchdog found. The reliance on paid-for treatment is so significant that dental care is becoming a costly “one tier” – private-only – service for more and more people, Healthwatch England is warning. It is concerned that the percentage of people who describe themselves as struggling financially that have used private dentistry has almost doubled in recent years from 14% to 27%. “Our findings are a warning that for some people there’s only one-tier dental care – private,” said Rebecca Curtayne, Healthwatch England’s acting head of policy, public affairs and research. “It’s the most vulnerable people in our society who bear the brunt of the ongoing shortage of NHS dental appointments. “Too many people on low income are being forced into private care they struggle to afford, or are going without treatment altogether. The system is failing those who need it most.” The big shift to private dental care showed NHS dentistry “exists in name only for many people”, the Patients Association said. “This report is yet further damning evidence on the state of NHS dentistry and this double penalty for people on low incomes demonstrates a systemic failure with real human consequences,” said Rachel Power, the association’s chief executive. “This isn’t just about the cost of dentistry. The lack of affordable dental care harms physical health, leaves people in ongoing, sometimes agonising, pain, and can take a heavy toll on mental and emotional wellbeing.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 9 March 2026
  25. News Article
    Responding to analysis from the Scottish Liberal Democrats, which suggested that there were 871 deaths in Emergency Departments (EDs) associated with a 12 or more hour wait for admission, Dr Fiona Hunter, Royal College of Emergency Medicine Vice President for Scotland, said: “These harrowing figures show that something must change in the approach to fixing the crisis in our EDs. “Heartbreaking doesn’t cover it. Each of these 871 people may have had families and friends who would have had to face the devastating reality that their loved one died not because they were too sick to treat, but because our hospitals don’t have the capacity to look after them properly. “Patients enduring these long waits are often the sickest or most injured, in need of further care on a ward. But a lack of beds, driven in large part by delayed discharges, meant they had to wait in A&E – and this can go on for hours and hours. “Almost 900 people may have paid the ultimate price for this complete breakdown in hospital flow. “Last year, RCEM published figures for 2024, which suggested there were 818 excess deaths associated with 12 hour waits in EDs. Today’s figures suggest that the problem is getting worse, not better. “Whoever forms the next government cannot ignore this problem. The numbers speak for themselves: more people will die, who otherwise would go home to their families, if overcrowding and long waits in ED aren’t fixed. “Addressing the ‘back door’ blockage of hospitals must be a priority for all political parties. Only then will the needless and agonising waits, and the avoidable deaths they cause, stop. “These are fixable issues and we encourage all political parties to make this a priority. Lives are at stake.” Read full story Source: Royal College of Emergency Medicine, 7 March 2026

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