The NHS waiting list has hit a record high of 7.77 million as healthcare leaders are told to scale back plans to tackle the backlog, new official figures show.
This figure is up slightly from 7.75 million in August and is the highest number since records began in August 2007.
Some 10,201 people in England are estimated to have been waiting more than 18 months to start routine hospital treatment at the end of September, up from 8,998 at the end of August.
The Government and NHS England set the ambition of eliminating all waits of more than 18 months by April this year, excluding exceptionally complex cases or patients who choose to wait longer.
The figures come as the NHS has agreed with the government to reduce the speed at which it reduces the NHS backlog. This is despite prime minister Rishi Sunak’s promise in January to bring it down.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak speaks to staff and patients in the same day emergency care unit during a visit to Milton Keynes University Hospital, Milton Keynes (Leon Neal/PA)— (PA Wire)
In a letter to healthcare leaders yesterday, NHS England told them to reduce the target to recover the national backlog and reprioritised £800 million of the national budget. The NHS authority said this had been done with the government’s agreement to relieve pressures and mitigate costs created by industrial action.
It said: “The impact of the more than 40 days of industrial action this financial year has created unavoidable financial costs that we estimate to be around £1 billion, with an equivalent loss of elective activity.”
Royal College of Nursing Chief Nurse, Professor Nicola Ranger warned the government has now “lost control of NHS waiting times”.
She added: “Despite the numbers now almost trebling since May 2010 and the prime minister’s promises to cut waits, people are being told today that they’re going to be waiting longer as the NHS runs out of money. These lists have been growing for years and the shortage of nurses is one of the fundamental causes.”
NHS England said responding to the latest data that the 7.77 million waiting list was made up of people waiting for scans, checks and operations with some waiting for more than one treatment.
In a new analysis published on Thursday, it said the number of individual people on the waiting list was in reality 6.5 million.
BMA continues in talks with government over strikes— (Getty Images)
The proportion of cancer patients who saw a specialist within two weeks of being referred urgently by their GP fell from 74.8 per cent in August to 74 per cent in September, remaining below the target of 93 per cent.
The 93 per cent figure is one of several cancer targets that are about to be discontinued, as part of an agreement by the government and NHS England to streamline performance standards.
The number of patients in England waiting longer than 62 days since an urgent GP referral for suspected cancer was 24,920 in the week ending October 1, up from 23,809 in the week ending September 3. However, most of the patients included in this total do not have cancer and are waiting for a diagnostic test, while around one in six do have cancer and are waiting for treatment.
Meanwhile, A&E pressures increased in October compared to last year, with 548,000 emergency admissions that month - up 8 per cent on October last year. Overall 1,334,000 people attended A&E.
Overall, 152,000 people waited more than 12 hours from arrival at A&E to be seen, treated or discharged.
Ambulance waits for most urgent cases increased in October— (PA Wire)
Some 70.2 per cent of patients in England were seen within four hours in A&Es last month, down from 71.6 per cent in September. The figure hit a record low of 65.2 per cent in December 2022.
The NHS recovery plan sets a target of March 2024 for 76 per cent of patients attending A&E to be admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours.
Dr Tim Cooksley, immediate past president of the Society for Acute Medicine, said: “With a sense of tragic inevitability, the performance data shows a spiral of decline that will mean patients will endure long waits, degrading corridor care and inevitable harm over the upcoming winter months.
“We are imminently in, and many hospitals are already experiencing, a further chaotic and dangerous situation to which there is no easy solution. There was an increase in delays of more than 12 hours in emergency departments which is truly terrible for patients.”
He said the winter crisis is now “unavoidable” and said a resolution to industrial action must be “mandatory” over the next few weeks.
The average response time in October for ambulances in England dealing with the most urgent incidents, defined as calls from people with life-threatening illnesses or injuries, was eight minutes and 40 seconds, NHS figures show.
This is up from eight minutes and 31 seconds in September and is above the target standard response time of seven minutes.
