The NHS will struggle to meet its target of delivering £20 billion in productivity improvements by 2015 according to our latest quarterly monitoring report.
The survey that informs this report – which this quarter includes finance leads from clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) as well as trust finance directors – highlights the growing pressures on NHS providers and a growing pessimism amongst finance directors that they will meet the Nicholson Challenge.
Commissioners are more optimistic, with 72 per cent of CCG finance leads expecting to meet their organisation's targets. And generally, most performance indicators are broadly stable, though median waiting time for outpatients has crept up to more than five weeks, its highest levels since January 2008.
How is the health and social care system performing? September 2013 is the ninth of The King's Fund's regular quarterly monitoring reports. Find out more about the work.
Despite several promises from the government, the UK is still NOT testing the English, the Clinical Engish and the communications skills of doctors from the EU. And accidents still happen where foreign doctors are unable to communicate in English in the UK. The GMC would welcome a standard test BEFORE a foreign doctor starts work in the UK rather than AFTER when possibly deadly mistakes have been made. How much longer must we wait and how many more empty promises will be made before the next accident waiting to happen, happens?
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