NHS waiting lists in England unlikely to fall in 2023, research suggests

A waiting room at an NHS health centre in London. Sunak said ‘waiting lists will fall and people will get the care they need more quickly’ was a key policy priority for 2023. Photograph: Simon Rawley/Alamy

NHS waiting lists are unlikely to fall in 2023, and the backlog is unlikely to be significantly tackled until mid-2024 despite being one of Rishi Sunak’s priorities for this year, research suggests.

The NHS has struggled to increase the number of people it is treating from its waiting lists each month due to ongoing pressures from Covid-19, although there have been signs of improvement in the past month, analysis from the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has found.