During a Public Accounts Committee session on the elective and cancer care backlog, James pressed NHS leaders and the Department of Health to address long delays.
He highlighted figures showing that over 12,000 people have been waiting for more than a year in Norfolk and Waveney, ten times the number in the best performing NHS Trust area.
In September 2021, government announced that an additional £36 billion would be invested in health and social care across the UK over the three years from 2022-23 to 2024-25, to tackle NHS backlogs, reform adult social care and bring the health and social care systems closer together in a sustainable way. For the NHS in England, this settlement brings additional funding of £8 billion for elective recovery over the period … NHS England’s revenue funding to 2024-25 will grow by an average of 3.8% a year in real terms
This extra funding will enable delivery of around nine million more checks, scans and procedures. It will also mean the NHS can aim to deliver around 30 per cent more elective activity by 2024-25 than before the pandemic.
James urged the Department of Health to be more activist in holding the NHS to account for performance in reducing waiting time to ensure taxpayers get value for money for the billions of extra spending provided.
This chart from the National Audit Office report on NHS backlogs and waiting times sets out the variation across England:
Picture credit: National Audit Office
