00:00In your department, waiting lists in England have gone up three months in a row.
00:04That's not what you promised people, is it?
00:06Well, progress has stalled in the last few months for a couple of reasons.
00:09Firstly, we had industrial action by resident doctors.
00:12That had an impact and set us back, as I feared it would and said it would at the time.
00:17We've also seen demand outstripping growth in activity.
00:22I say that not by way of excuse, by the way, but explanation.
00:24We've got to make sure that we outstrip demand.
00:28I think you'll begin to see improvement again on waiting lists in the coming months.
00:32So by when will they start to come down?
00:34Because they have been going up.
00:35By the end of this parliament and on current trajectories, by the end of this parliament,
00:39we can still achieve our goal of cutting waiting times from 18 months, which we inherited,
00:44to 18 weeks, which is where they should always have been.
00:46Notwithstanding the challenges of the last few months, this is the first time in years
00:51that waiting lists have fallen in England.
00:53Wales, they are also falling too.
00:56The SNP in Scotland have got some questions to answer about how their waiting lists have
01:00gone up despite the investment.
01:00And we'll do that when they speak to them, but let's look at a different measure.
01:03But we are moving in the right direction.
01:04Let's go.
Comments