CEO's blog: scrapped NHS targets and the impact on vulnerable residents
Using your feedback, Healthwatch England shapes these objectives, and we're encouraged to see our suggestions included, such as a focus on access to primary care, listening to patients, and supporting people waiting for treatment.
NHS England's own priorities, which have also recently been reviewed, run alongside this. These are typically targets for local NHS teams to make sure they deliver certain levels of care to patients. We were disappointed to see some crucial targets have been dropped.
The targets scrapped for 2025 include:
- A target for 75% of people with severe mental illness to receive a full annual physical health check.
- A target for 75% of people 14 years + with a learning disability to receive an annual health check.
- A watering down of targets for those with heart disease.
- A target on reducing long waits for community services.
- A target on increasing vaccination uptake for children and young people.
What stands out amongst these abandoned targets is the negative impact this will have on the health of those who are already extremely vulnerable. If NHS leaders aren't prioritising those with learning disabilities or severe mental illness for example, then how can NHS services genuinely commit to tackling health inequalities?
Whilst annual health checks are an effective way of preventing future health problems, sadly, we know from your feedback that they are not always routinely offered (as they should be). Giving up on targets to prioritise them is directly at odds with the NHS focus on prevention, rather than cure.
So, what can we do? We'll be working with the Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes Integrated Care Board to see how they choose to implement targets and priorities, and exploring how we can monitor the effect of these changes on people in Milton Keynes. As ever, your feedback about services makes a real difference. Please continue to share your story with us.
Lastly, a huge thankyou to everyone who has completed our 2025-6 priorities survey - we've had our highest ever response rate which is incredible! If you haven't yet got round to it, the survey closes 28 February.
