Department of Health slammed by stats watchdog for ‘deceptive’ NHS waits declare

On Jan 26, 2024

The Department of Health has been criticised by the statistics watchdog for making “potentially misleading” claims about NHS ready instances.

Ed Humpherson, head of the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR), took difficulty with an announcement made to the Times earlier this month, the place the division claimed “we have cut the total waiting list and the number of individual patients waiting for treatment”. It got here after greater than 74,000 folks, together with Stephen Fry, Jo Brand and Michael Rosen, signed a 38Degrees letter demanding an emergency plan to chop report ready lists.

Official figures on the time confirmed that the variety of sufferers ready for remedy fell between September and October 2023 fell from 6.5 million to six.44 million. The variety of excellent procedures fell from 7.77 million to 7.71 million.

But the numbers had been nonetheless a lot increased than when Rishi Sunak made a pledge to chop NHS waits in January 2023 – when 6.06 million sufferers had been ready for 7.20 million procedures.

The chart above shows the estimated number of incomplete pathways and the estimated number of unique patients waiting for consultant-led treatment with the NHS in England, from November 2022 to November 2023. The lines in the chart show a steady increase in both from November 2022 until reaching a peak in September 2023, and then falling.

Data from NHS England reveals waits for remedy from November 2022 to November 2023

In a letter responding to a criticism concerning the declare, Mr Humpherson stated: “It would better support understanding if DHSC had been clear on what time period it was referring to avoid potentially misleading people. This is particularly important where the fuller time series of waiting lists data, as shown in the chart below, show an upward trend in waiting lists over the last year and could therefore be perceived as selectivity of data.”

Veronica Hawking, Head of Campaigns at 38 Degrees, stated: “There are hundreds of thousands more patients on NHS waiting lists since the PM made that promise, but instead of owning up to that, the DHSC tried to paper over the cracks by pointing to tiny recent falls. A government spokesperson claimed to have “cut the total waiting list” – although, on the time, all that they had was a single month the place the backlog fell from 6.5 million sufferers to six.44 million.

“That’s still hundreds of thousands more people waiting, scared and sick, for care.” She added: “Spin doctors won’t bring the waiting lists down, the NHS doctors, nurses, and other staff are the ones who need government investment.”

Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting stated: “Having failed to cut NHS waiting lists, all the Conservatives have left are these pathetic attempts to hide the truth. People aren’t stupid, they know the NHS is broken- they see it with their own eyes. The NHS needs solutions not spin. Labour will pay staff extra to deliver 2 million more appointments on evenings and weekends, paid for by abolishing the non-dom tax status.”