NHS England waiting list hits record high for second month in a row | NHS

The number of patients awaiting NHS treatment in England broke records for the second month in a row to 5.3 million, official figures show, suggesting the huge backlog of care could exacerbate exhaustion NHS staff.

This means the waiting list has increased to 606,501 in the past three months as patients have resumed using the NHS, renewing fears that it will reach 7 million before the end of the year.

Figures showed that only two-thirds (67%) of patients received treatment within 18 weeks in May, well below the standard the NHS set itself to treat 92% within that timeframe.

Health executives warned that the numbers showed there was a “huge task ahead” for health workers, who “valiantly fought the fires on multiple fronts” as they faced “high levels”. of unprecedented exhaustion and stress ”.

The NHS said it was investing an additional £ 1 billion in additional operations and treatments to restore services and reduce backlogs.

Patients waiting more than 18 weeks for elective care have fallen by more than 80,000 since April. Nearly 337,000 patients have been waiting for more than a year, although that number has fallen by 50,000 for the second month in a row.

Average wait times have declined since February, with June being the second lowest since before the pandemic began, to 10.8 weeks.

However, experts predicted that the situation could deteriorate over the summer due to the deployment of the third wave of Covid.

Nigel Edwards, chief executive of the Nuffield Trust, said the risk of 100,000 new cases of Covid per day over the next few weeks would result in ‘inevitable and significant demand for Covid-19 hospital beds’, slowing efforts to catch up. waiting lists.

Over 2.1 million people attended A&E last month, making it the busiest June ever. Attendance figures slumped in the first few months of the pandemic, but they have steadily returned to normal levels.

The figures came as the NHS Confederation warned that “an unbearable number of people are now visiting A&E, seeing their GPs and calling for ambulances. Overwhelming demand is putting severe and unprecedented pressure on emergency care systems, ”he said.

“A sharp rise in Covid this summer will put even more strain on an emergency care system that is struggling to cope, and this will have a direct and immediate impact on the care the NHS can provide to patients,” said said Matthew Taylor, director general of the confederation.

Almost one in four people attending major A&E waited more than four hours to be seen.

Data on cancer patients also showed long waits after initial referrals, with only three-quarters of patients seen within two weeks of an urgent referral from a general practitioner, well below the target of 85% , with the same proportion observed after an NHS cancer screening against a 90% target.

In particular, data has shown that wait times for a number of different treatments are particularly long in the first half of 2020 as health services grapple with the effects of the pandemic.

Analysis by the Macmillan Cancer Charity suggested that the total number of people who saw a specialist for suspected cancer since the start of the pandemic was nearly 300,000 lower than expected, while there were 35 000 missing patients starting treatment.