‘NHS waiting times have risen. We need reform, based on what patients want’

The latest NHS stats show an increase in the median wait time from 13.9 weeks in April 2024  to 14.6 weeks in August 2024. The good news the number of patients waiting over 52 weeks has dropped from 395,170 in August 2023 to 282,664 in August 2024.

But there is still much further to go, especially with winter approaching, and along with it, the pressures of increased respiratory illnesses and urgent care demand.

Following years of Tory stewardship, Wes Streeting, MP, upon appointment asked Lord Darzi to undertake a rapid investigation of the state of the NHS.

The Darzi review showed how political hubris, tunnel vision and a lack of understanding of the fundamentals of the NHS, led to over a decade of austerity and the imprisonment of over 1 million staff in a systematically broken system.As a pharmacist I’ve seen how despite being busier than ever before, I’m still unable to meet patient expectations and demand because of current setup of the health system.

As a pharmacist I’ve seen how despite being busier than ever before, I’m still unable to meet patient expectations and demand because of current setup of the health system.

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As an operational manager I’m seeing how our own demands and workloads have increased significantly, with more people telling us how to do our job than actually supporting us to do our job.

I am further seeing how unmet societal problems, many of which are unquantifiable, are resulting in increasing patients attending A&E with for example poor quality housing with black mould and damp, and what appears to be a worsening social determinants of health.

However despite this, I completely agree that the NHS shouldn’t get more money until there is further reform.

The government is developing a 10-year plan/strategy to fix the NHS, and any conversation about the future of the health service must, first and foremost, be grounded in what patients want.

The loudest voices for change on how to fix the NHS may come from service providers such as doctors, CEOs etc. But this is akin to asking a machine learning engineer if the product they’re fixing solves the overarching problem for the consumer.

The NHS exists for patients, and so patients should set forward the vision for what they want from the NHS today and the future.