Waiting lists at hospitals hit a new record high
A record number of people in England are waiting to start routine hospital treatment, according to new figures.
Data from NHS England shows 6.2million people were on waiting lists at the end of February – up from 6.1million in January – which is the highest number since records began in August 2007.
But the figures also reveal that, while the overall waiting list has continued to grow, the number of people waiting more than a year and two years have both fallen.
A total of 23,281 people in England were waiting more than two years to start routine hospital treatment at the end of February – down slightly from 23,778 at the end of January but it is around nine times the 2,608 people waiting that long in April 2021.
The number of people having to wait more than a year to start hospital treatment also fell from 311,528 in January to 299,478 in February.
The NHS elective recovery plan sets the ambitions of eliminating all waits of more than two years, except when it is the patient's choice, by July and all waits of more than a year by March 2025.
NHS England’s national medical director Professor Stephen Powis said: "Nobody should be under any illusion about how tough a job the staff at the NHS have on their hands, balancing competing priorities and maintaining high quality patient care.
"Despite pressure on various fronts and the busiest winter ever for the NHS, long waits fell as staff continue to tackle two-year waits by July thanks to the innovative approaches to care they are now adopting.”