A&E waiting times axed as NHS chiefs say Tory cuts make them impossible to keep
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A&E waiting targets have been axed after NHS chiefs said Tory cuts make them impossible to keep.
The drive to see 95% of patients within four hours is postponed until next April.
But the NHS Confederation warned: “It will be an immense task just to stabilise the service. We repeat our call for the Government to tackle health funding.”
NHS Providers director Saffron Cordery added: “This is the first time we have had to accept that the NHS will not meet its key constitutional standards.
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“The NHS will not be able to improve performance against those targets. If we want to provide quality of care, we need the right long term financial settlement.”
Labour’s Jonathan Ashworth said: “The fact bosses are admitting the A&E target won’t be met for over a year is the clearest admission the Tories have failed to give the NHS the funding it needs.”
The 95% target has not been met since 2015.
A NHS England planning document released today instructed hospitals to attempt get up to 90% by September 2018 and back to the benchmark of 95% in April next year.
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It said: “Contract sanctions for performance standards are currently suspended. We propose to extend this until April 2019.”
It will inject £540million into A&Es if they meet targets to improve.
NHS England boss Simon Stevens last year warned waiting times would be scrapped due to funding.
In the Budget, the Tories gave only £1.6billion of the £4billion extra needed.
The Department of Health and Social Care insisted it is “committed to giving it the NHS the resources it needs”.