David Oliver: NHS England targets for new and follow-up outpatient appointments are ill conceived
In February 2022 NHS England published its Delivery Plan for Tackling the Covid-19 Backlog of Elective Care ,1 aiming for an unprecedented 30% rise in elective activity by 2024-25. In an effort to cut waiting times and the number of people waiting for first appointments, the plan set an improbably ambitious target of reducing follow-up outpatient visits by 25% by March 2023 from 2019-20, to leave more capacity for first appointments. All first appointment waits of over 52 weeks were to be abolished by 2025. Last month the Health Service Journal 2 reported that the latest NHS digital hospital e...