Background
NHS England’s (NHSE’s) plans for recovering NHS waiting times for elective and cancer care include transformation programmes. These programmes aim to reduce waiting times by changing how care is provided for surgery, diagnostics and outpatients and using resources more productively. These programmes were allocated additional capital funding of £5.9 billion from 2022-23 to 2024-25. This report will examine NHSE’s oversight of its programmes for transforming elective care and diagnostics, and whether it is applying what it has learned to deliver improvements in productivity.
Scope
The report will examine:
- whether NHSE is clear on what it is aiming to achieve from its elective care transformation programmes
- whether NHSE has established effective arrangements for central oversight of the programmes
- whether the elective care transformation programmes are delivering what NHSE intended and whether NHSE is learning and applying lessons from them
NAO Team
Director: Ashley McDougall
Audit Manager: Heather Thompson