The Daily Telegraph

NHS ‘on its knees’ with one in 10 on waiting lists

- By Laura Donnelly and Ben Butcher

ONE in 10 people in England are on an NHS waiting list, with victims of suspected heart attacks waiting almost an hour for an ambulance, according to official figures.

The latest data show a record 5.8million people are waiting for operations, including more than 300,000 who have waited more than a year. The statistics show mounting chaos across Accident and Emergency units and ambulance services.

Hospital chief executives said the service was “at breaking point” while charities said it was “on its knees”. NHS targets say those suffering strokes, and chest pains, which can denote heart attacks, should be seen within 18 minutes. But the average response is now 54 minutes, up from 24 minutes two years ago, the figures for October show.

A similar deteriorat­ion is seen in the most urgent category, which includes cardiac arrests. Average waits are now more than nine minutes, against a target of seven minutes, which was being hit before the pandemic.

The NHS figures show the worst A&E performanc­e on record, with just 73.9 per cent of patients seen within four hours, against a target of 95 per cent.

Deborah Ward, senior analyst at the King’s Fund, said: “These stats reveal the worst performanc­e since current records began for ambulance calls, A&ES and waits for planned hospital care.

“In a normal year any one of these would ring alarm bells; taken together before winter has even begun, they suggest a health and care system running hot for such a sustained period whilst still dealing with Covid-19, it is now on its knees.”

Health chiefs said NHS 999 services have just had their busiest ever month. These figures, which are for October, record more than one million calls.

Ambulances responded to more than 82,000 life-threatenin­g call-outs, an increase of more than 20,000 on the previous high for October in 2019.

The figures show that major A&ES treated more than 1.4million people during October. It is the highest ever figure for that month, and third highest of all time. The data show the total waiting list is the biggest on record. These statistics cover September and show 5.8 million waiting – a raise from 5.7 million in August and the highest since records began in 2007.

The number of NHS patients waiting at least a year for surgery and other planned treatment rose to 300,566 in September – more than double the 139,545 of a year before. They include 12,491 people left waiting at least two years for operations – a rise of 28 per cent in a month.

NHS officials said the latest figures showed services carrying out more diagnostic tests and started more treatment than at the same time last year. A survey of NHS chief executives, chairmen and directors by the NHS Confederat­ion found that nine in ten said pressures on their organisati­on have become unsustaina­ble.

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