More than 100,000 patients waiting over a year for care as NHS misses key target

• The NHS routine hospital waiting list in England rose to 7.37 million pending procedures in August, involving approximately 6.24 million patients.
• Long-term delays continued to escalate, with 113,339 patients waiting over a year for care, while only 65 per cent started treatment within the 18-week target.
• Despite NHS staff delivering a summer record of 4.7 million planned treatments, senior officials warned of ominous early winter pressures from flu and respiratory viruses.
• Emergency departments experienced their busiest September on record with 2.44 million attendances, causing 4-hour target performance to drop and over 50,000 patients to face 12-hour admission delays.
• Health policy experts warned that short-term funding fixes are insufficient, urging the government to focus on long-term illness prevention and sustainable health service reform.

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