‘National tragedy’: figures show large rise in people dying while on NHS waiting list

Hospital bosses say deaths reflect a ‘decade of underinvestment’ that has left the NHS with too few staff and beds. Photograph: Victoria Jones/PA

More than 120,000 people in England died last year while on the NHS waiting list for hospital treatment, figures obtained by Labour appear to show.

That would be a record high number of such deaths, and is double the 60,000 patients who died in 2017/18.