Treatment purchase fund is working

RECENT criticisms of the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) are off the mark. I cannot understand those who do not see the real benefits this scheme has brought.

Under the old ‘waiting list’ system, patients were left waiting often indefinitely, without set appointments, sometimes for years. With the NTPF backing up public hospitals, most patients will be offered a definite appointment for treatment after three months. The result is that waiting times have been reduced from two to five years to two to five months.

Even the most ardent statistician must recognise the ending of that situation as progress.