A senior NHS leader in the North East has welcomed progress bringing down hospital waiting lists - and explained he thinks virtual appointments for outpatients are the next step to recover backlogs stemming from the Covid-19 pandemic.
Around the country there are now just 2,777 people who have waited more than two years for NHS treatment - that's fallen from 22,500 at the start of this year. The NHS has also said that of those patients still waiting, more than half had chosen to defer their treatment with many others "complex cases".
Complex cases include spinal surgeries - which are the kind of cases hardest hit by long waits at the Newcastle Hospitals NHS Trust. That trust has brought the number of people waiting more than two years down to 41 - the figure was 241 at the end of 2021.
