Pritchard warns strikes threaten elective targets and safety

Ms Pritchard also re-emphasised concerns already expressed by NHS England that “if strikes continue into winter, it will be extremely difficult for us to provide safe care to our patients, particularly with a twindemic of covid and flu”.

The NHSE boss was asked by HSJ at the King’s Fund’s annual conference on Thursday how confident she was about the NHS achieving its next elective recovery target on 65-week waiters and the prime minister’s pledge in January to reduce overall waiting lists.

Ms Pritchard said: “We are really encouraged that there are talks under way between the government and the British Medical Association but clearly having had the level of disruption over the last 10 months of industrial action, we have seen really significant challenge on maintaining focus on reducing both long waits and on tackling overall waiting list size.”

She said that on weeks when there were no strikes, waiting lists reduced, and there had been sustained progress on cutting long waiters “despite the pressures of industrial action”. She praised the “extraordinary amount of focus and creativity from NHS staff” to achieve this.

But she added: “[There has to be] a real recognition that with ongoing industrial action [reducing long waiters and the overall list] is going to be an increasingly challenging target.”

During her keynote speech prior to Q&A session, the NHSE chief executive reflected on ten months and counting of industrial action, which had included around 70 strike days. She said she never thought the service would have to cope with both junior doctors and consultants taking action simultaneously.

NHSE finance chief Julian Kelly told HSJ in July the body was “still committed to meeting the target to virtual elimination of 65-week waits by March”, and year-long waits by 2025.

However, during the same interview Mr Kelly admitted the prime minister’s target was already looking challenging.

“We will keep looking at where we get to [on the] total waiting list size. That is going to depend upon what happens in terms of further industrial action… I think that is one for us to keep looking at as we think about planning into 2024 and 2025,” he said.

The overall referral to treatment waiting list stood at 7.75 million in August, according to the most recent data last month. It has risen every month since PM Rishi Sunak announced his pledge in January that it would be falling by next year. The number of 65-week waiters rose to around 110,000 in August – a rise which came after a period in which the numbers in the cohort had plateaued.