Returning NHS waiting times to 18 weeks for routine treatment: the scale of the challenge pre-Covid-19

Returning NHS waiting times to 18 weeks for routine treatment: the scale of the challenge pre-Covid-19

Returning to ‘normal’ levels of activity is expected to take some time and, even before Covid-19, there were substantial challenges with waiting times. As the NHS looks to start to recover services, this long read looks at the context in which planned treatment will recommence. Specifically, it looks at what would have been needed – if the NHS were operating within a ‘business as usual model’ – to return to delivering the standard of 92 per cent of patients being treated within 18 weeks, given the waiting lists and waiting times backlog that had built up by January 2020. The Health Foundation