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England faces a huge challenge to improve the performance of urgent and emergency care services given rising demand and high hospital bed occupancy rates, a public spending watchdog has concluded.1
A report from the National Audit Office details the record levels of demand, the associated spending, and the NHS’s failure to meet key operational targets since before the covid pandemic.
Gareth Davies, head of the National Audit Office, said, “More people than ever before are receiving unplanned and urgent care, with NHS England spending increasing amounts of public money and employing record numbers of people. Yet patients’ satisfaction and access to services have been worsening, suggesting there is no single, straightforward solution to improving a complex and interdependent system.
“While NHS England has a plan to improve services, long term trends in workforce, activity, spending, and performance indicate this will be a significant challenge.”
The report notes that in the financial year 2022-23 general practices delivered 336 million appointments, up from 285.3 million in 2018-19, and that 25.2 million...