Newcastle Central MP Chi Onwurah has called on the Government to do more to alleviate waiting lists at hospitals like the Freeman and the RVI in the city.
With more than 93,000 people waiting for treatment at the Newcastle Hospitals NHS Trust, Ms Onwurah said the Government's recent Elective Recovery Plan wasn't enough.
She said: "People in Newcastle Central are being forced to wait months and even years for treatment, often in pain and discomfort. Now the Government is telling them that, despite hiking up their national insurance, they will continue waiting longer for years to come.
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"It is clear that the longer we give the Tories, the longer patients will wait."
In Newcastle, as per NHS data covering December 2021, 93,343 people were waiting for treatment. Almost 30,000 of those have been waiting longer than the 18 weeks set out in national targets.
However the number of patients in the city who have been on a list for more than a year fell again - and is now down to 4,276.
The Government plan would only see waiting lists begin to be reduced by 2024.
Citing the staff who have been showcased in Channel 4's Geordie Hospital TV show, Ms Onwurah said the Government needed to step up to support them.
"As the TV show ‘Geordie Hospital’ shows, the staff at the Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust have worked heroically throughout the pandemic, but they have been stretched like never before.
"The Government must give us the staff and support the Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust needs to get patients the quality care they deserve, when they need it."
Dame Jackie Daniel, chief exec of the Newcastle Hospitals NHS Trust, has repeatedly called for a "proper workforce plan" from central Government. Most recently, earlier in February, she said: "The need for a long-term workforce plan which supports, encourages and nurtures staff is more important than ever and that is something that I raise with NHS leaders and politicians whenever I get the chance."
Specifically dealing with waiting lists, Dame Jackie said "attention was increasingly turning" to waiting lists as the Omicron Covid-19 wave wanes.
She said: "We know it will take months and years before this is fully addressed. Our first priority is to focus on the longest waiters, particularly the 250 people who have waited over 104 weeks and over 4,000 who have waited over 52 weeks for their operations.
"Many of those waiting a long time need particularly complex procedures which can only be provided at a tertiary centre like Newcastle, and I’m grateful to the directorate and operational teams who are working through the details to support each patient as quickly as possible."
The pandemic has seen waiting lists rise nationally to the highest levels on record - having now passed six million patients nationwide - and the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and NHS England published its Elective Recovery Plan in early February.
This would see elective care "transformed" to help reduce waits. The NHS has pledged that no-one will be waiting more than a year by 2025, and no-one will be waiting more than two by this July.
There will be a new "My Planned Care" website launching this month to help patients track their care and potentially choose where to be treated if waiting lists for specific procedures vary.
In presenting the plan in the House of Commons, Health Secretary Sajid Javid said: "Sadly, as a result of focusing on urgent care, the NHS couldn’t deal with non-urgent care as much as anyone would have liked.
The British people of course have understood this. Despite these exceptional efforts, there is now a considerable Covid backlog of elective care. 1,600 people have waited longer than a year for care before the pandemic. The latest data shows that this figure is now over 300,000.
"On top of this, the number of people waiting for elective care in England now stands at 6 million, that is up from 4.4 million before the pandemic."
Laying out his plans, he said because many had stayed away from hospital due to the pandemic, he expected the figure to rise before it began falling. The Health Secretary said there would be £2bn to support elective recovery this year, and a further £8bn over the next three years.
Last year, the Government announced National Insurance payments would go up by 1.25p in the pound - meaning someone earning £30,000 a year would pay more than £200 more. This will, from April 2023, form a new Health and Care Levy.
