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The health secretary Sajid Javid has announced that the publication of a report, which will detail how the government plans to tackle the NHS backlog, has been delayed as a result of the Omicron wave.
The plan, which was initially due to be released in early December, was expected to be published today (7 February).
Mr Javid told the BBC that the emergence of the new Omicron variant meant the focus shifted to the booster programme, meaning the plan is not yet ready for publication.
However, sources working for the Department of Health and the NHS say that the Treasury had refused to sign off the plans.
But Mr Javid denied this, saying: “There’s no issue around the money at all. It’s all about just making sure that when you publish something so ambitious and so important, we do want to make sure across government everything is agreed and everyone is behind the plan.”
Javid said the government will publish the plan “soon”.
The government has “a moral duty” to patients to lay out the plans
With six million patients on the waiting list for non-urgent operations and procedures, Dr Chaand Nagpaul BMA council chair said doctors will be “incredibly concerned to hear that vital funding for the NHS is being help up once again.”
Dr Nagpaul says that many of the patients awaiting care will be “suffering in pain and there’s a real risk their conditions will worsen with further delays.”
For this reason, Dr Nagpaul says the government has “a moral duty to these patients to urgently lay out exactly how it plans to address this record backlog and ensure they get the treatment they need.”
“The Government has been promising this plan for months now, and while the arrival of Omicron may have delayed this, healthcare staff now urgently need to know how leaders expect them to tackle the backlog in the months and years ahead, and crucially, provide resources to help them do this,” he said.
Waiting times for cancer referral and treatment at record high
The news comes following House of Commons research which shows the number of cancer patients facing delays in seeing a specialist for the first time and starting their treatment have hit record highs in England.
The figures suggest that around half a million people in England with suspected cancer will have to wait longer than the suppose two-week maximum to see an oncologist this year.
Furthermore, at least 75,000 cancer patients are expected to be unable to start treatment (such as surgery or chemotherapy) within the 31 or 62 days that the hospitals try to guarantee.
Experts are concerned that delays to diagnosis and treatment could reduce chances of survival and lead to poor health outcomes. Indeed, a study published in the BMJ found that people whose treatment for cancer is delayed by even one month have in many cases a 6 to 13% higher risk of dying – a risk that keeps rising the longer their treatment does not begin.
Dr Nagpaul stressed that the healthcare staff are exhausted and experiencing burnout, and the government now “owes it to these dedicated staff – and crucially, the patients painfully waiting for treatment – to lay out this strategy, recognising the severity of the situation our health service faces.”
“Politics must not be put before patients,” he added.