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.
