The waiting lists for routine hospital treatment in England reached a new record. This is the latest blow for UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who had hoped that the backlog would be reduced by the upcoming election.
According to NHS England figures released on Thursday, more than 100,000 patients were still waiting to begin treatment by the end July.
The number of patients waiting longer than 12 months has increased from 383083 to 389952, while 7,289 were waiting for more than 18 months. This is up from 7,177. It shows that the health service continues to fail to achieve its target to eliminate 18-month waiting times by April.
By the end of July, 2023, the number of people waiting over 15 months had dropped from 97.275 to 96.722. In total, 277 people waited more than two years. This is down from 314 although this wait was supposed to be eliminated by July 2022.
The data will increase pressure on Sunak who has promised to reduce waiting lists before the next general elections, where health will be one of the key battlegrounds.
Since December of last year, a wave of industrial actions has caused more than 885 000 inpatient and outpatient appointment cancellations.
NHS England stated that the impact of the walkouts would likely be greater than the actual numbers, as many services avoided making appointments on strike days in order to concentrate on emergency care. Next week junior doctors and consultants will stage more stoppages, including a day of unprecedented joint action.
Julian Redhead is the national clinical director of urgent and emergency medicine. He said that despite pressures such as a record demand for emergency services and an increase in Covid-19 this summer, response times for category 2 ambulances were over 10 minutes faster than they were a year earlier. Calls in category 2 include heart attacks and strokes.
This is the highest total for a single month this year.
The data released on Thursday showed that, in addition to a reduction in some of the longer waits, there was an improvement in the average wait time for elective treatment. In July, the median inpatient wait stood at 11.3 week, which is the lowest it has been since December 2022.
It also revealed a slight increase in the number of patients (more than 40%) who waited longer than 18 weeks before starting treatment. The standard was only 8%.
Wes Streeting said, Labour’s Shadow Health Secretary, that the NHS was no longer available to millions of patients in England when they needed it.
He described Sunak as “Inaction Man . . . “Refusing to meet with doctors in order to end NHS strike and adding to Conservatives’ NHS backlog”.
Siva Anandaciva is the chief analyst of The King’s Fund, a think tank. She pointed out “real problems with how long patients wait for care in important services”, such as in A&E, where only 73 percent of patients are seen within four-hours, “well below NHS standards that patients are entitled to” (95 per cent).
Cancer Research UK reported that a number of cancer targets were missed. Michelle Mitchell, chief executive of the charity, said that these figures were among the worst ever recorded and represented the anxiety faced by patients as well as the immense pressure placed on NHS staff.
The government stated that cutting waiting lists is one of its top priorities. Despite disruptions from strikes, the 18-month wait has been virtually eliminated.
The government said that had announced a new funding of £200mn to help the NHS “treat patients as quickly as possible in winter”.