‘Crack teams’ in high joblessness areas cutting NHS waiting lists | Manchester News

Sending “crack teams” of top doctors to hospital trusts in areas with high levels of joblessness is cutting waiting lists, Health Secretary Wes Streeting has said.

He started the scheme in September, tasking clinicians with improving care in 20 areas – including in Lancashire, Cheshire and Merseyside – where more people are neither employed nor actively seeking work for reasons including ill health.

He said this had now been shown to cut waiting lists twice as fast as the rest of the country.

Streeting said the “targeted support” to hospitals in areas of highest economic inactivity was “getting sick Brits back to health and to work” and it would be rolled out further later this year.

Data from October to January showed waiting lists in these areas which were reduced at more than double the rate of the rest of the country.

A total of 37,000 cases have been removed from the waiting lists in 20 areas, averaging almost 2,000 patients per trust, according to government figures.

Streeting gave examples of trusts where the scheme had worked.

This included Warrington & Halton NHS Foundation Trust, which has run gynaecology clinics at weekends, with one-stop models reducing the need for follow-up appointments and the Northern Care Alliance and the Manchester University Foundation Trust where a series of “super clinics” were held.

Up to 100 patients were seen in a day in one-stop appointments where patients can be assessed, diagnosed and put on the treatment pathway in one appointment and employment advisors were also on site to support patients with any barriers to returning to work.

He also cited how it had worked at East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust which has focussed on streamlining diagnostic pathways and increasing capacity for echocardiography, or heart scans, reducing the waiting list for these from about 2,700 patients to about 700 with all patients having their scan within six weeks.

Streeting said: “The investment and reform this government has introduced has already cut NHS waiting lists by 193,000, but there is much more to do.

“I am determined to transform health and social care so it works better for patients – but also because I know that transformation can help drag our economy out of the sluggish productivity and poor growth of recent years.”

There are 20 NHS trusts involved in the scheme, also including in Tees, West Midlands, South Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and Greater Manchester.

Data showed the number of people unable to work due to sickness was at its highest since the 1990s.

The number of adults economically inactive due to ill health rose from 2.1 million in July 2019 to a peak of 2.9 million in October 2023.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer announced the abolition of NHS England, dubbed the “world’s largest quango” this week.

He said the move was intended to “cut bureaucracy” and bring the management of the health service “back into democratic control”.

Conservative shadow health secretary Ed Argar said: “The amazing work of NHS and social care frontline staff has made a real difference for patients, alongside the Conservatives’ innovations to cut waiting lists that are now delivering results, so it is positive news the government are building on those foundations.”

However, he said unemployment continued to rise “thanks to Rachael Reeves’ budget” and “Labour’s job tax” would divert money away from frontline public services, “as pharmacies, hospices, dentists and GPs struggle to absorb the costs”.

“With the NHS now coming under direct ministerial control, Labour will have nowhere to hide from patients’ anger at the consequences of their choices,” he added.