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The UK government has been accused of “deprioritising” mental health after a number of NHS targets were scrapped under a planned overhaul.
Hospital bosses in England will be judged against far fewer targets under updated annual guidance published on Thursday, which saw the number of goals pared back from 32 to 18.
Health secretary Wes Streeting outlined a renewed focus on A&E waiting times and reducing appointment backlogs, but critics have warned that fewer targets means other areas will inevitably be cut.
Axed objectives include ensuring 75 per cent of people with severe mental illness receive a full annual physical health check, and a goal to increase the number of adults completing a course of treatment for anxiety and depression.
More than 2mn people are on NHS waiting lists for mental health treatments or courses, according to campaigners.
Ministers are still protecting mental health spending, and require NHS trusts to raise investment in mental health in line with overall budget increases.
New guidance published on Thursday also states that health leaders should seek to reduce average length of stay in adult acute mental health beds and improve access to children and young people’s mental health services.
The updated document contains fewer “national priorities”, which are broader NHS goals, but major objectives on A&E waiting times and reducing waiting lists have remained.
At the heart of the new guidance is a target to ensure 65 per cent of patients on a waiting list for routine hospital care are seen within 18 weeks.
Ministers have vowed that 92 per cent of patients will begin treatment for an ailment — or get the all-clear within this timeframe — by the end of the parliament in 2029. This NHS target was last met at the end of 2015.
Andy Bell, chief executive at the Centre for Mental Health, said waiting times are “just as important” as those for other care.
“We are deeply disappointed that waiting lists for elective care have been given priority over those for mental healthcare,” he said.
He added that placing these NHS patients on a “lower footing” was “unjust”.
Sarah Hughes, chief executive of Mind, added: “The lack of a credible plan to get the 2mn people on mental health waiting lists the help they need, the dropping of key mental health targets, and lack of adequate funding means this government appears to be deprioritising mental health.”
The dementia diagnosis rate target, which requires 67 per cent of people living with dementia in England to receive a diagnosis, was also scrapped from the guidance.
Fiona Carragher, chief policy and research officer for the Alzheimer’s Society, called the decision “unacceptable” and said it “sends the message that dementia doesn’t matter”.
The guidance also calls on NHS organisations to simultaneously “reduce their cost base” by at least 1 per cent and achieve 4 per cent improvement in productivity, which health leaders warned would be “unbelievably stretching” for the NHS to achieve.
An additional target set out on Thursday is for 75 per cent of cancer patients to have their first treatment within 62 days, compared with the current target of 70 per cent.
Streeting said: “If everything is a priority, then nothing is. I want to empower NHS leaders to deliver the innovation and reform required to fix the NHS, rather than overload them with targets which have failed to deliver better outcomes for patients.
“This new approach will see the NHS focus on what matters most to patients — cutting waiting lists, getting seen promptly at A&E, and being able to get a GP appointment.”
