Using the NHS app, patients awaiting routine operations will soon be able to compare hospitals with the shortest wait times.
Ministers intend to update the app that a record number of Britons downloaded during the pandemic, primarily as a way to display their Covid vaccine passport.
More than 6,7 million patients in England are waiting in agony for procedures such as hip replacements and cataract surgery.
In the most recent effort to reduce the record backlog, hospital administrators want to give patients more choice over where they are treated.
By April of next year, Health Secretary Steve Barclay wants patients to have access to “real-time data” regarding hospital waiting lists.
The hope is that providing patients with this information will allow them to undergo a procedure sooner, even if it means traveling hundreds of miles.
It comes amid a warning that patients languishing on waiting lists for months contributes to the A&E crisis, as people unable to manage the pain of their condition flood emergency departments.
Currently, general practitioners typically refer patients in need of routine procedures to their local NHS services.
Patients have the right to request a different provider, but they must independently compare the hospital’s waiting times with those of its neighbors.
This information is already accessible via the My Planned Care website.
Health officials believe that putting this information at the public’s fingertips via the NHS app would empower patients to make these decisions with ease.
According to a memo seen by The Times, Mr. Barclay has instructed the NHS to ensure that GPs provide “a meaningful choice offer for patients at the point of referral, which can also be used during any long wait for care.”
This will include “real-time data on waiting times broken down by providers” via the NHS app, including from private hospitals with public contracts.
The health service has agreed to implement the changes in April and this data will be updated weekly.
Earlier this year, NHS England officials announced plans to incorporate the information into the app.
Under the idea, it is unclear whether the NHS will cover a patient’s travel or lodging expenses.
Former Health Secretary Sajid Javid pledged earlier this year that the NHS would reimburse the costs for patients on waiting lists who choose to receive treatment at a hospital in a less crowded region of the country.
It is unknown whether Mr. Barclay, who has a reputation for “efficiency,” intends to increase his predecessor’s commitment.
The NHS app, which was initially released in 2018, sprang to attention as a means to generate Covid passes during the epidemic.
According to NHS Digital, there were 22 million users of the app at the beginning of the year.
Since then, the app has failed to become the primary method for most Britons to manage things like GP appointments, with many removing it now that Covid passes are no longer required.
As part of the Covid recovery plan, the NHS has been instructed to conduct 30% more routine surgeries, including hip replacements, compared to pre-pandemic levels.
According to NHS data, waiting times for treatments vary greatly amongst hospitals in various regions of the country.
At North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust, patients only wait eight weeks for orthopedic procedures like hip or knee replacements.
At University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, patients who live three hours away must wait 34 weeks.
By traveling just 30 minutes to a hospital within 30 minutes of their current location, patients might reduce their wait time by over 10 weeks in London alone.
Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust has an average waiting time of 29 weeks, whereas its neighbor Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust has an average waiting time of 20 weeks.
It has been asserted that the NHS’s massive waiting lists are also contributing to the A&E crisis.
The NHS Confederation said yesterday that patients awaiting surgery are flocking to the nation’s emergency departments due to their agony and suffering.
It comes at a time when the backlog for elective care is projected to expand further as more individuals with health problems caused by the pandemic come forward.
This month’s Freedom of Information petitions has revealed that an additional 10.3 million surgical patients are awaiting follow-up hospital care.
This list, which is not available to the public, contains individuals who require post-operative care or monitoring, as well as those with chronic diseases who require routine follow-ups.
Mr. Barclay and his predecessor, Mr. Javid, have placed a greater emphasis on addressing the NHS care backlog.
This required providing patients with other treatment venues with shorter wait times.
Mr. Javid’s pledge to eliminate the number of patients waiting more than two years by July was not met.
Ministers justified the goal’s failure earlier this month, noting that there would always be a “tiny number” of patients who opt to wait longer to be treated locally or who require highly specialized care.
The government now aims to eradicate NHS wait times of 18 months by April of next year.
In the meantime, the NHS faces a “winter of discontent” due to the risk that physicians will strike over salary.
Because of the ‘awful situation’ of the NHS, one of the nation’s leading physicians, Philip Banfield, chairman of the British Medical Association, stated that doctors must determine daily which patients will live or die.
He has proposed an inflation-beating salary increase of up to 30% for physicians by the following year.
The NHS is facing its worst winter ever, with A&E and ambulance wait times already at record levels and scan and basic care backlogs growing.
Junior doctors have issued an ultimatum to ministers by the end of September, threatening to vote on strike action if the existing salary offer of 2% is not improved.
Consultants and specialized physicians are also contemplating strike action in response to their proposed 4% compensation increase, which they claim amounts to a pay loss in the long run.
In addition, nurses are collaborating with the Royal College of Nursing to create a ballot for industrial action in the coming weeks.
The nursing union is demanding a 5% wage increase above inflation for its members. According to the Office of National Statistics, inflation reached 8.8 percent in July.
