In a press release titled "STATISTICAL PRESS NOTICE - NHS INPATIENT AND OUTPATIENT WAITING TIMES FIGURES" the Department of Health quietly announced that the number of English patients waiting more than 13 weeks for an outpatient appointment has risen by 18,000 from December 2008 to December 2009 a rise of 45.3%
The release also said that those waiting over 8 weeks had increased by 26,900 from December 2008 to December 2009 an enormouse rise of 57%.
The government have put cutting waiting times at the heart of their NHS reforms and have even promised that there will be a legal protection of your right to see a specialist within a certain timescale. Revisiting my previous post that laws are not for aspirations, I wonder that if we had a law that told you you had a right as an outpatient to be seen within 13 weeks who would be in court, or imprisoned for not achieving that today?
This does make me wonder why so many in the United States are so eager to have Universal Health Care. And I though getting in to see David's doctor was hard.
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