New information issued today lays out the challenge faced by the NHS to meet the maximum 18-week target by the end of 2008.
From January the NHS will start to measure how long it takes for a patient to receive treatment, following a referral from their GP. Ahead of this, the Department has benchmarked current referral to treatment (RTT) times through a ‘baseline exercise’ and headlines show that on average 70-80% of non-admitted patients and 35% of admitted patients were seen within 18 weeks.