One key objective for the NHS is that by the end of 2008, there will be an 18 week maximum wait between a patient receiving a GP referral and the start of their treatment.
Although some patients will have fairly straight-forward and easily-diagnosed complaints and may well receive treatment in less than 18 weeks, others will have much more complicated ailments resulting in more complex pathways.
These patients may need all sorts of tests and face a number of stages of diagnosis. It could be nigh on impossible to predict their particular pathway to treatment at the outset. Yet the 18 week target will stand.
So achieving the 18 week target will require a new way of working. Service transformation underpinned by innovative IT solutions.