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Report

How is the health and social care system performing? June 2013

Quarterly monitoring report

This quarter's report aims to take stock of what has happened over the past year and assess the state of the health and care system halfway through the £20 billion Nicholson Challenge.

The report finds that for the final quarter of 2012/13, nearly 6 per cent of patients waited four hours or longer in A&E, the highest level since 2004.

The growing pressure on hospitals is also reflected in a survey of NHS finance directors carried out for the report. This suggests that, although the NHS will end 2012/13 in a healthy financial position, the outlook for the next two years is bleak, with the majority expecting the NHS to fail to meet its target to deliver £20 billion in productivity improvements by 2015.

Despite the pressures in emergency care, other NHS performance measures are continuing to hold up well. Waiting times for referral to treatment in hospital, the number of health care-acquired infections and delays in transferring patients out of hospital all remain stable.