Since its foundation in 1948 by Welshman Aneurin Bevan, the NHS has matched any battle thrown its way.
But the unpresented Covid-19 pandemic has seen the service tested to its limits, reportedly with already understaffed and underfunded hospitals and General Practices at breaking point.
The NHS now faces a huge waiting list for appointments and referrals. In fact, it was recently revealed nearly 600,000 people are currently waiting for treatment on the Welsh NHS, a country of just 3 million people.
What are the NHS guidelines on waiting times?
Firstly, waiting times do not apply to emergency patients. If deemed of needing emergency care, you should be seen within the four hour target window. Over 90% of people should be discharged or transferred within this time.
Taken from the UK Government, the current standard waiting times are as follows:
- 18 weeks Referral to Treatment Standard
- 12 weeks for new outpatient appointments
- 6 weeks for the eight key diagnostic tests and investigations
This should represent the upper limit on how long patients can expect to wait, pre-pandemic many were seen sooner than the standard wait. However, with large backlogs of appointments, current waiting times hugely vary.
How do waiting times work?
To determine your waiting time, a series of assessments take place that set out your treatment plan.
A waiting time is decided from a series of standards that sees a maximum time at each stage of a referral to treatment process, allocated to a patient.
These standards are for routine acute procedures such as hip-replacements and cataract removals.
For things like cancer care, treatment is totally tailored to the patient's condition, with rapid action a must in many cases.
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