Are NHS waiting list targets bad news for patients?
The NHS is an incredibly large institution, and the amount of people it is required to treat is even larger. For that reason, it is vastly over burdened. Not only is there the task of trying to account for, and organise all of the different staff and professionals, making sure they are all acting appropriately; there is also the huge task of making sure all of the patients feel well looked after, and obviously helping as many of them as possible.
And what's more, this has to be done on an extremely limited budget. There are so many treatments that would help save lives, that cannot be used by the NHS due to lack of money. All of this, coupled with the lack of space, means that often really ill people are forced to wait on waiting lists to get the treatment they need. One in which people have tried to tackle this problem is by putting targets in place for how long a patient should have to wait, or how long waiting lists should be.
This method of tackling the issue is not helpful, however. It is the medical professionals, the doctors and nurses, who know how best to treat their patients. They will not, therefore, treat people for longer than they have to, for they know there are people waiting to be treated just outside the door, so to speak. And yet, ministers interfere and put down unrealistic targets, which threaten punishment for those who fail to meet them, and which can only be met by falling short of the quality of care required.
I'm sure the headlines are not unfamiliar, saying that various patients have been struck off lists in order to meet targets. Another way in which targets have been met is by giving people less than the treatment they require, so as to get them through the system quicker, and get onto the next patient. If the professionals were to treat people how they saw fit, they would violate all of these targets.
In short, if there is not enough money or resources, then only a certain amount of people can be treated at one time. Placing targets onto professionals to try and increase the amount of people seen over time, will not change how much resources there are, and will only serve to compromise care.
And what's more, this has to be done on an extremely limited budget. There are so many treatments that would help save lives, that cannot be used by the NHS due to lack of money. All of this, coupled with the lack of space, means that often really ill people are forced to wait on waiting lists to get the treatment they need. One in which people have tried to tackle this problem is by putting targets in place for how long a patient should have to wait, or how long waiting lists should be.
This method of tackling the issue is not helpful, however. It is the medical professionals, the doctors and nurses, who know how best to treat their patients. They will not, therefore, treat people for longer than they have to, for they know there are people waiting to be treated just outside the door, so to speak. And yet, ministers interfere and put down unrealistic targets, which threaten punishment for those who fail to meet them, and which can only be met by falling short of the quality of care required.
I'm sure the headlines are not unfamiliar, saying that various patients have been struck off lists in order to meet targets. Another way in which targets have been met is by giving people less than the treatment they require, so as to get them through the system quicker, and get onto the next patient. If the professionals were to treat people how they saw fit, they would violate all of these targets.
In short, if there is not enough money or resources, then only a certain amount of people can be treated at one time. Placing targets onto professionals to try and increase the amount of people seen over time, will not change how much resources there are, and will only serve to compromise care.
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