The RCP submitted written evidence to the public accounts select committee inquiry on reducing NHS waiting times for elective care.
The committee’s inquiry - which has now published its final report - aimed to examine how effectively NHS England and the government are meeting the NHS’ statutory waiting standards for elective care that 92% of patients should begin treatment within 18 weeks.
It also looked into the delivery of transformation programmes designed to reduce waiting times for elective care across surgery, diagnostics and outpatient care, and whether they are providing effective use of government funding.
The RCP’s written response set out that in order to reduce NHS waiting times for elective care, the government must reform outpatient services to make them more efficient and patient-centred, invest in digital infrastructure and administrative support for staff, and deliver a refreshed NHS workforce plan which expands specialty training places and contains strong retention measures for staff.
The full submission made the following recommendations:
- outpatient reform must be part of the government’s 10-year plan for the NHS
- government must redefine the full scope of NHS outpatient, or planned specialist, care – moving from a ‘one size fits all’ approach to personalised care; from siloed teams to integrated pathways; and from activity-counting to outcome-focused care
- government must deliver a robust, refreshed NHS workforce plan to recruit and retain the NHS workforce we need to meet patient demand
- government must deliver the expansion in medical school places and expand postgraduate medical specialty training places, along with the increased educator and supervisor capacity. government must invest in administrative support and digital infrastructure which is vital to improving communication and integration across primary, secondary and community care services.
In our submission, we set out our vision for outpatient care following our Prescription for Outpatients report and outlined the current barriers that stand in the way of the transformation that we would like to see. This includes access to digital tools and technology, the current way that outpatient care is taught within medical training, the way that care is coded, the way that care is commissioned, and the significant time that the workforce is spending on administrative tasks.
The RCP has today responded to the committee’s report from the inquiry, included among its recommendations that the Department of Health and Social Care must set out its plans to secure clinical engagement on its outpatient transformation programme and NHS England must set meaningful targets that have clinical support.