18 Week Wait

What is 18 Weeks?                    

18 weeks is about delivering the right care, at the right time, of the right quality.

The reasoning behind the 18 week target is that patients should be able to receive excellent care without any unnecessary delays.

In December 2008 the 18 week target was implemented.  Now, the longest patients have to wait after being referred by their GP until they start treatment is 18 weeks - that is, unless it is clinically appropriate to wait longer, or the patient chooses to delay treatment. Wherever possible patients will wait less than this.

Any hospital appointments, tests, scans or other procedures that patients may need before being treated will all happen within this maximum time limit.

The 18 week target focuses closely on pathways that involve consultant led care, setting a maximum time of 18 weeks from the point of initial referral to the start of any treatment necessary and clinically appropriate.


What does 18 weeks mean for patients?

• A focus on ending the 'culture of waiting' in the NHS.  The overall patient experience should be improved by lower waiting times.
  

•  Everyone who chooses to be treated within 18 weeks, and for whom it is clinically relevant, will be treated in that timeframe.
  
  

• With these much lower waiting times and other changes taking place across the NHS - like patient choice - GPs are likely to only refer patients for treatment when they are fit and their personal circumstances allow them to be treated.
   

•  High quality care will continue, irrespective of whether it is provided by the NHS or independent sector.
   

• Diagnostic tests and outpatient appointments will be carried out closer to home as more services are provided in the community and by GPs.  On an increasing scale, patients will only need to go to hospital for specialist treatment.
  

Patient Leaflet

The 'End Waiting, Change Lives: Setting New Standards for Your Care' patient leaflet provides patients with a plain English summary of the 18 weeks target. It helps to articulate patients' benefits and responsibilities. Read it here.


Useful websites for patients


End Waiting, Change Lives
The public-facing campaign for 18 weeks delivery.

NHS Choices
Developed to help you make choices about your health, from lifestyle decisions about things like smoking, drinking and exercise, through to the practical aspects of finding and using NHS services when you need them.

Choose and Book
The national electronic referral and booking service.

NHS Direct
The website for the 24-hour helpline, NHS Direct provides information and advice about health, illness and health services to enable patients to make decisions about their healthcare and that of their families.

Patient Opinion
Enables patients to share their experiences of health care. As well as allowing everyone to see what patients are saying about their services, it also offers a way to feed the experience of patients back to the NHS.