10 Opportunities for Resetting and Restarting the NHS Planned Care System

The Auditor General for Wales published this Report in September 2020.

When the UK went into lockdown in March 2020, Audit Wales was concluding follow up work looking at the progress made since reports on waiting times for elective care and orthopaedic services were published in 2015.This report draws on the findings from that audit work and reframes the key messages to inform emerging plans for restarting planned care services, as well as wider discussions on what a post COVID-19 NHS needs to look like.

The report suggests ten opportunities for which could help create sustainable changes for the system of NHS Planned care, which would align with the five ways of working set out in the Well-being and Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015.

Planned care, also known as elective care, covers the diagnosis and treatment of patients in a planned way in secondary care having been referred by a GP or other health professional. A key feature of planned care is that patients generally wait weeks or months for their diagnosis and treatment. Planned care is contrasted with unscheduled care, which covers unplanned emergency care, for example through accident and emergency departments.

The Public Accounts Committee noted this Report in November 2020.