Health chiefs fear backlog won’t clear till 2026

A THIRD of NHS leaders fear the Covid backlog will take between three and five years to clear, a poll reveals.

A survey of trust leaders, carried out by NHS Providers, has revealed widespread worries about access to care.

With waiting lists already at a record high, some 96 per cent of bosses said demand is significantly rising, with mental health, urgent and emergency care and cancer services topping their worries.

Two thirds said they feared backlogs will make health inequalities worse, while 87 per cent said patients now have more complex needs than before the pandemic.

The survey, which was sent to 170 bosses at 199 trusts, comes as NHS data to be published today is expected to show the highest ever waiting list in England.

The number of those waiting for hospital treatment hit 5.6million in July.

Saffron Cordery, deputy chief executive of NHS Providers, said the NHS is ‘fighting fires on multiple fronts’ and the ‘key intervention’ needed is more staff.