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<p>The Department group contains almost five hundred separate National Health Service
organisations. The Department is required to contain the total spending of all of
those organisations within a set of financial controls operated by HM Treasury and
approved by Parliament. Despite significant pressures, the Department expects to contain
spending within these financial controls in 2014-15.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Alongside
financial balance, maintaining performance against waiting time standards is a priority
for the Government. The NHS is experiencing unprecedented demand for its services
from a growing, ageing population with complex health needs which is making delivery
of consistently high quality, timely care within its budget ever more challenging.
Performance against a range of quality measures remains high but some patients are
not receiving treatment as soon as the Government would like. Robust year-round operational
resilience planning and performance management, backed by additional funding, is in
place to help the NHS recover performance against waiting time standards in 2014-15.</p><p>
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