A recent official report on NHS performance shows that continuing improvements are being made. The Quarter 4 report sets out NHS quality and financial performance between January and March 2011.
Out of 21 measures, it shows the NHS has improved or maintained quality of services in 20 areas, highlighting just one area where more effort is required, namely in ensuring that under18 year-olds are not admitted to adult psychiatric wards. The NHS has improved its quality of service in 14 areas, including a continuing reduction in the rates of hospital acquired infections; better performance on quickly seeing and treating patients who have mini-strokes; reduction in breaches of same sex accommodation; under- 18 conception rates continue to fall but with local variation; increased access to dentistry for adults and children, and; improvement in breast and bowel cancer screening rates. Waiting times over this period are said to have remained stable and patients continued to receive NHS treatment quickly following a referral, including for cancer treatment. In March, Referral to Treatment data showed that the average waiting time for admitted patients was 7.9 weeks, and for non-admitted patients 3.7 weeks. The report also provides the latest update on NHS finances, showing that the NHS is reporting a year-end surplus of £1.5 billion for 2010/11. Commenting on the figures, Health Secretary, Andrew Lansley, said: “This report shows that the NHS is continuing to perform strongly, providing better care for patients and better value for taxpayers. But if we want our NHS to be truly-world class, and we know that some of our outcomes for patients lag behind European averages, we can, and must, do better. “I believe modernisation of the NHS will both safeguard the future of our health service, and ensure it is more efficient and more accountable, moving us closer to having a highquality health service that puts patients at the heart of everything it does.”
