NHS Waiting List in England Hits Record High with 7.7 Million Waiting for Treatment
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – New data from NHS England reveals that the waiting list in England's National Health Service (NHS) has reached a new record high, with approximately 7.7 million people, or about one in seven individuals, awaiting treatment.
This data indicates a rise in the overall waiting list and an increase in the number of individuals facing long waits of a year or more compared to the previous month, according to the Guardian.
Over the past decade, the waiting list for treatment in the NHS has steadily grown, surpassing 3 million in 2014, 4 million in 2017, 5 million in 2021, and 7 million in 2022. In February 2020, just before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the waiting list stood at 4.57 million. Since then, it has grown by over 3 million, reaching 7.68 million as of July this year, the highest number on record since data tracking began in August 2007.
Rishi Sunak has made reducing waiting lists a priority for 2023, promising earlier this year that "lists will fall and people will get the care they need more quickly."
The latest data indicates that 389,952 people in England had been waiting for more than 52 weeks to start routine hospital treatment by the end of July, up from 383,083 at the end of June. Additionally, there were an estimated 7,289 people in England waiting for more than 18 months to begin routine hospital treatment by the end of July, compared to 7,177 at the end of June.
In terms of cancer care, urgent cancer referrals from GPs increased to 263,696 in July, up 1% from 261,006 in June and up 10% year-on-year from 239,739 in July 2022. However, the proportion of cancer patients who saw a specialist within two weeks of urgent referral by their GP declined from 80.5% in June to 77.5% in July, remaining below the 93% target. The number of patients waiting longer than 62 days after an urgent GP referral for suspected cancer saw a slight decrease.
The NHS is striving to improve cancer care performance, with targets for timely diagnosis and treatment remaining critical measures. Despite ongoing challenges, NHS England noted improvements in ambulance response times over three consecutive months, even as A&Es faced their busiest summer ever.
Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary, criticized the extended waiting times, calling them "unacceptably" long and criticizing Rishi Sunak's response to the NHS crisis.
