UK Government achieves NHS appointment target early, yet challenges remain

The government has announced that it achieved its target of providing an additional two million NHS appointments seven months ahead of schedule, even as the health secretary cautions that there is still a "hell of lot more to do".

According to new data released by NHS England, nearly 2.2 million more elective care appointments were delivered between July and November last year compared to the same period in the previous year, as reported by City AM.

The government rolled out 'Change NHS' in October last year, a decade-long health strategy aimed at "building a health service fit for the future". Last Thursday, it shared data indicating a slight decrease in the overall NHS backlog from 7.48 million to 7.46 million, with the estimated number of patients waiting dropping from 6.28 million to 6.24 million.

However, Monday's figures provided a more detailed picture, revealing that the NHS offered an additional 100,000 treatments, tests, and scans each week, along with over half a million extra diagnostic tests.

Wes Streeti