The NHS is using specialist teams to cut waiting times three times faster
Specialist NHS teams helped cut waiting lists three times faster than the national average, a new report has revealed.
Thousands of patients across England benefited from the Further Faster 20 (FF20) programme, which helped slash waiting times, turbocharge activity, and get people back to work.
Crack teams of experts were sent to 20 hospital trusts across England with the highest levels of economic inactivity, to cut the waiting list and boost growth.
The FF20 programme sees teams work alongside local staff to transform how planned operations and outpatient appointments are delivered. This includes High Flow Theatre Lists, where experts perform ‘Formula 1 style’ surgery with theatres operating continuously, allowing surgeons to complete planned operations more quickly.
Streamlining outpatient processes also played a major role. Trusts cut unnecessary appointments by sending patients “straight to test” rather than multiple clinic visits.
South Tees alone created 4,000 extra appointment slots by optimising the way it ran outpatient clinics, while Bolton cut wasted slots by 20% through better capacity management. East Lancashire deployed AI-powered dictation for pre-operative assessments, boosting nurse productivity by 14%.
The health service will take learnings from the programme and use these to take the best of the NHS to the rest of the NHS.
“We said our Elective Reform Plan would get waiting lists down, and one year on that’s exactly what it’s delivering. Along with record investment, we’re doing things differently to get patients seen quicker, back to work and living their lives,” said Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Streeting.
“By sending crack teams into hospitals to supercharge care, opening more Community Diagnostic Centres longer and later, and cutting wasteful spending, we’re turning the tanker round, and patients are starting to feel the difference.
“It will be a long road, but together with NHS staff, we are fixing our health service and make it fit for the future and beyond.”
