In my experience, with my mum's and dad's illnesses in recent years, the NHS aims to achieve targets by doing only what have they to do, and not just get on with it.
My dad phoned up to ask when an operation was going to take place as he'd been waiting for ages and has a chronic heart condition. The answer was that they were still within the target date, so just carry on waiting until the time is up, and we'll get around to letting you know what's going on.
I think most doctors who work in NHS are fantastic, but the system is dreadful.