NHS services have failed to close the gaps in services which are leaving poorer people twice as likely to wait a year for care, new research has found.
Despite promises made during 2020 in the wake of Covid by the NHS and government to tackle inequalities in care, not enough progress has been made to bring down waits for marginalised groups, according to the think tank the King’s Fund.
However, an analysis by The King’s Fund found those in the most deprived areas of England are twice as likely to face a year of waiting for care after being referred.
The warning comes after the government were accused by a top civil servant of leaving women to die during Covid, due to a “toxic” culture of sexism within No.10.
Ruth Robertson, Senior Fellow at The King’s Fund, said: “It is possible for the NHS to tackle long waits for care and to do this in a way that doesn’t widen the already shameful inequalities that have plagued the English NHS for decades.
Too many black women have experienced treatment that falls short of acceptable standards, a committee said as it raised concerns that the Government and NHS leadership have underestimated the extent to which racism plays a role (Alamy/PA)
“But to help realise this ambition and make good on its promise to ‘build back better’ after the pandemic, the government must now provide greater emphasis and clarity on how it expects waiting lists to be tackled more fairly.
“In the years from now, when we judge how well the NHS dealt with recovering waiting lists in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic, we should look at whether and how health inequalities were addressed. Addressing inequalities in the backlog is good for patients, good for communities and good for the NHS.’
The NHS waiting list currently sits at 7.7 million and according to recent reports is likely to continue to rise until at least next August. Despite promises by the prime minister in January this year to reduce it.
Prime minister Rishi Sunak pledged in January to bring down the NHS backlog— (PA Wire)
In 2020 NHS England made a promise to tackle inequalities and placed requirements on NHS service. These included hospitals examining their waiting lists to identify if there were any issues of deprivation and ethnicity impacting waiting times and prioritising their waiting lists with this in mind.
However, the King’s Fund analysis, which looked at 13 NHS hospitals and regions, found while some areas had made progress on this others are yet to even begin tackling the problem.
The think tank warned the gap in access could become even worse if the government does not make a “firmer” commitment to fair access to care.
Former deputy cabinet secretary Helen MacNamara said she was concerned a lack of ‘real life’ perspectives in Boris Johnson’s government led to mistakes during the Covid-19 pandemic (UK Covid-19 Inquiry/PA)— (PA Media)
The report found that the NHS was not doing enough to tackle the systemic barriers which make it difficult for those to access care such as groups of patients finding it harder than others to navigate appointments.
Researchers also warned of “fundamental cultural challenges” within the NHS as staff have different views on what is fair in terms of prioritizing patients on waiting lists.
Saffron Cordery, deputy chief executive, NHS Providers, which represents hospitals in England, said: “Healthcare mustn’t be about winners and losers. Trusts are committed to tackling health inequalities as they work flat out to bring down the longest waits for treatment and recover the elective care backlog.”
She said addressing health inequalities must be a national priority alongside bringing down the NHS waiting list.
An NHS spokesperson said: "Reducing inequalities is at the core of our elective recovery plan and as it sets out, local NHS areas are expected to analyse their waiting list data by relevant characteristics, including age, deprivation and ethnicity, and by specialty, to develop detailed clinical and operational action plans.”
It added the aim is to develop better understanding of variation in access to care and key to this is having better data on patients.
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “It is vital we provide patients with the level of care they expect and deserve.
“That’s why we are delivering on three major recovery plans to improve access to urgent and emergency, primary and elective care, and have made progress to significantly reduce the longest waits for routine treatment, despite pressures including industrial action.
“Our Major Conditions Strategy will look at the prevention and management of the six conditions that are responsible for the highest proportion of ill health in England and we are improving the nations’s health by giving access to new obesity drugs and ending cigarette sales to those born on or after 1 January 2009."
