Daily Insight: NHSE’s excuses do not stand up to scrutiny

NHS England’s attempt to blame the junior doctors’ strike for its failure to hit a flagship target to eliminate 78-week waiters by next month is misleading because the service was on track to miss the benchmark anyway, as we reported yesterday.

NHSE chief strategy officer Chris Hopson told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that the NHS was on track before the junior doctors’ strike and it was only the three-day action which had prevented trusts hitting the target to clear its 78-week breach backlog by April.

However, the NHS’s own internal forecasts suggested only around 2,000 of the 11,000 78-week waiters who are still expected to be on the waiting list past the April target are the result of this month’s junior doctors’ strike, as HSJ exclusively revealed last week.

With one of Rishi Sunak’s big pledges being to have the waiting list falling by next year, NHSE’s Whitehall overlords may not be overly concerned about NHSE pushing the blame on to the strikes. It’s always good to have a few excuses in the tank, after all.

All that said, it’s important to stress that the NHS has made great strides on long waiters, a major credit to clinicians and managers alike, even if it has fallen short of its latest headline target. And, of course, the medical strikes are hugely frustrating and disruptive, especially to elective care.

But tougher challenges lie ahead. And, ultimately, the NHS will be judged by patients on how long they have to wait and the service they receive, not excuses by NHSE or politicians.

CQC warns of ‘risk of harm’

The Care Quality Commission has issued a warning notice requiring a trust to take “urgent action” over one of its hospitals’ maternity services.

Following an inspection earlier this year, the CQC has said it believes women might be exposed to “risk of harm” if changes are not made. 

St Peter’s hospital’s maternity service, part of Ashford and St Peter’s Hospitals Foundation Trust, was being reviewed for the first time as a standalone service but when previously inspected alongside gynaecology the services combined had been rated “good”. 

Inspectors found maternity service staff did not have enough time to risk assess women properly, act upon any risks identified within “safe timeframes”, or maintain accurate care records.

However, inspectors praised the “positive transparent culture”, saying staff worked hard and felt valued and included in plans to improve services. Read our full story here.