The NHS will focus on delivering faster treatment for hundreds of thousands of patients – including for planned surgeries and emergency care – as the number of national targets is almost halved under new guidance to reform services.
Published on 30 January, NHS England’s planning guidance for the next financial year sees a significant streamlining of priorities and success measures – from 32 in 2024/25 down to 18 in 2025/26 – to focus on what matters most to patients and reduce waiting times.
The NHS has set out a new national ambition for 65% of patients to receive elective treatment within 18 weeks by March 2026, with every trust asked to deliver at least a 5% improvement on their performance this year. Based on current levels of demand, the guidance sets out how NHS services will aim to see nearly 450,000 more patients treated within 18 weeks next year.
With staff diagnosing and treating more people with cancer than ever before, NHS England has also confirmed new national ambitions to speed up diagnosis for patients. Under the guidance, around 100,000 more people referred for urgent cancer checks will get a diagnosis or the all-clear within four weeks next year.
The reduction in targets will empower local health leaders to improve care for their patients, helping deliver on the government’s commitment to rebuild the health service through its Plan for Change.
NHS England will give local systems greater spending flexibility to use funding to meet the needs of their patients, and the plans for reform will see local areas required to make tough decisions to meet the needs of their populations, including where this means reducing or stopping lower value activity.
While in the first seven months of this year the acute sector improved productivity by over 2% – double the improvement rate pre-pandemic - and the NHS is on track this year to surpass the £7 billion of efficiencies delivered in 2023/24. All systems have been asked to make further progress, delivering a 4% overall improvement in productivity and reducing their cost base by at least 1%.
Setting out the plan, NHS chief executive Amanda Pritchard said the health service must have a “relentless focus” on driving efficiencies for the taxpayer, including reducing agency spend – with all local systems expected to deliver at least a 30% reduction in agency spending (based on current spending) next year, equivalent to around £650 million to invest in the frontline.
The work of NHS England, which leads the health service, will also reflect the streamlined priorities, and over the coming months programme resources will be reprioritised, and action will be taken to achieve £325 million in savings. This will include reducing the organisational structure by 15% to redirect resources to support the frontline over the coming year.
The additional reduction follows the recent merger with Health Education England and NHS Digital, making the organisation almost 35% smaller than its predecessors and generated nearly £500million of savings, which have been reinvested in patient care.
Amanda Pritchard, NHS chief executive, said: “Thanks to the incredible work of our staff, the NHS is providing more appointments, tests and treatment than ever before, helping to cut long waits – but we know there is much more to do. The NHS must go further and faster to improve and reform care, and today’s guidance aims to deliver more timely treatment for hundreds of thousands of patients. In what will undoubtedly be another tough financial year, the NHS will continue its relentless focus on boosting productivity and driving efficiencies for the benefit of patients and taxpayers.”
The guidance follows the publication of the government’s new Mandate for reform of the NHS, which sets out five core objectives for the health service to deliver, including cutting waiting times, improving access to primary care and improving urgent and emergency care.
The Planning Guidance and Mandate has set out the immediate priorities for the health service next year, while the NHS and government develop a new 10 Year Health Plan to build an NHS fit for the future, due to be published in the summer.
As NHS staff continue to contend with record demand for care, NHS England has asked all local systems and providers to develop Neighbourhood Health Service models next year with an immediate focus on preventing long admissions to hospital and improving access to urgent and emergency care.