HSJ Health Check The big waiting list clean-up
10 snips
Dec 5, 2025 Join investigative health journalist James Illman, who reported on NHS waiting list clean-up, and health reporter Jack Sell, specializing in health policy. They discuss the impact of waiting list clean-ups on NHS targets, raising concerns over potential wrongful patient removals and data quality. Jack dives into a new UK–US deal that alters drug pricing thresholds, enabling costlier drug approvals, while addressing the implications for NHS budgets. A compelling conversation that exposes the complex balance between patient care and health policy.
AI Snips
Chapters
Transcript
Episode notes
Validation Is Crucial But Opaque
- Validation removes duplicates and patients who no longer need care from RTT lists to improve accuracy.
- James Illman warns lack of transparency means we can't tell if removals are always appropriate.
Payment Scheme Could Skew Removals
- NHS England doubled its estimate of removable cases from 300,000 to 600,000 and set up a £30m fund to pay trusts for validation.
- James Illman says this payment-per-removal model could materially affect reported list size and incentives.
Metrics Favor Removals Over Data Quality
- The validation programme rewards number of removals rather than data quality metrics, raising overzealousness concerns.
- Rob Finley's critique (cited by James Illman) suggests this design may lead to unjust patient removals.