As nationally more than seven million wait for NHS treatment, figures show 240,000 of those people are on waiting lists across the North East's five acute hospital trusts.
However, in more positive news, hospital trusts in our region continue to make progress in cutting the numbers of those waiting for more than a year and a half. As of the end of August, there were now just 716 people who had been waiting for more than 78 weeks.
As a large specialist trust catering to patients across the North, Newcastle Hospitals NHS Trust has the biggest waiting list - with just short of 100,000 people waiting for treatment. The figure - 99,755 - has jumped over the summer having previously fallen to 95,839 in June. In Newcastle, the biggest waits see more than 11,000 people each waiting for dermatology and ophthalmology treatment.
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Across Newcastle, the Northumbria Healthcare, Gateshead Health, South Tyneside and Sunderland, and County Durham and Darlington NHS trusts there are now more than 240,000 people waiting for treatment. That's jumped from 203,000 in September last year. NHS bosses in our region pointed out that hospitals here are performing above average - when compared to the national picture.
Senior figures including Sir James Mackey - chief executive of the Northumbria Healthcare NHS Trust and the man leading the national elective recovery effort - have previously warned that the backlogs would prove difficult to cut before 2025. He told MPs back in December that cutting the longest waits would be more achievable in the short-term.
In the wider North East and North Cumbria NHS area, huge progress has seen the number of those waiting more than 78 weeks slashed by 80% since August 2021. Back then, under huge Covid pressure, 4,673 patients had waited that long. Now it's just 919 - and people waiting two years has bene almost completely eliminated.
Dr Neil O'Brien, medical director at the NHS's North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care Board (ICB), said: "Nobody wants to see patients waiting too long for treatment, so it's great to see the number of long waits coming down. Staff are still working incredibly hard, and working smarter than ever thanks to a whole range of innovations.
"Emergency surgery and cancer treatment never stopped, but hospitals were instructed to pause outpatient appointments and non-urgent surgery to focus on fighting the pandemic. We still have a long way to go, but our staff deserve a huge vote of thanks for the progress we have made."
He said it was still a difficult period for the NHS, but the region "can be proud that we're tackling waiting lists together".
Innovations including a new £24m day treatment centre at Newcastle's Freeman Hospital, a £5.5m surgical theatres upgrade at Wansbeck Hospital and soon-to-be-finished £10m diagnostic centre at South Tyneside Hospital.
NHS national medical director Professor Sir Stephen Powis said: "Despite huge pressures on the NHS this summer, the incredible work of colleagues across the country meant that in August we delivered more potentially life-saving cancer checks than ever before, and cut 18-month waits by 60% over the last year."
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