More patients left to wait six months for surgery

♦ The number of patients waiting at least six months for operations has risen by 40 per cent in a year.

The Royal College of Surgeons said safety was increasingly under threat from mounting pressures on services, with rising numbers of patients being left in pain as waiting times grew.

The figures were published the day after the head of the health service warned that a record five million people were set to be left languishing on lists unless the NHS received a cash boost in the Budget. The statistics show 151,710 patients waiting at least six months for surgery in September of this year, compared with 108,463 12 months before – a 40 per cent rise. The number waiting more than one year rose by 50 per cent, to 1,778 cases.

Professor Derek Alderson, President of the Royal College of Surgeons, said: “Waiting several months for treatment could have a serious impact on a patient’s quality of life and the effectiveness of their surgery.”