There are warnings that the NHS will be forced to face the "brutal reality" of an Easter as bad as most winters. This news comes as covid case numbers increase across the UK, as well as the amount of time people are spending waiting in A&E.
Around one in 10 patients has had to wait more than 12 hours to be seen by a health care professional, reports show. This is the highest level since the data was first collected in 2015.
Analysis from the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) found that in the last week of March, 44 per cent of patients had to wait more than four hours to be seen, treated and then admitted or discharged - compared with just 19 per cent in the same week in 2019, before the pandemic began.
"I have never seen it as bad as it is now," says Dr Katherine Henderson, the RCEM's president. "Long waits in emergency departments cause harm because a patient's condition may deteriorate and there may not be the staff there to notice. It makes everybody really anxious, and we know that people are not getting the care they deserve."
It's also not just people looking to be seen by a doctor that have had to wait, either. In fact, reports have emerged that people have spent hours waiting on trolleys and in cubicles because there is no room to be admitted in to the hospital itself. There has also been delays in ambulance response times, in cancer care, and for planned surgeries.
According to the BBC, more than 6.1 million people in England are on a waiting list for routine treatment - that's one in nine of the population. More than 24,000 of them have waited more than two years for the likes of a hip replacement or gynaecology services. There are a number of factors playing a role in this - staff shortages, a lack of care in the community, and the fact that running hospitals has become more difficult because of Covid infection-control measures.
Earlier this week, Matthew Taylor, from the NHS Confederation, told BBC Breakfast: "The brutal reality for staff and patients is that this Easter in the NHS is as bad as any winter."
"Trusts are doing all they can to bear down on care backlogs, which have increased during the pandemic for hospital, mental-health and community services," added Chris Hopson, the chief executive of NHS Providers. "But they face extraordinary pressures, including the continuing impact of Covid."
Rising case numbers put pressure on NHS services, as patients need to be isolated, entire hospital bays need to be cleaned, and staff who fall sick have to take time off work.
"What is needed is realism on what the NHS can achieve and how quickly," says Chris.
Earlier this year the health service published its "elective recovery plan", pledging that every patient waiting more than two years for routine surgery should be treated by July. As a Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said: "We know the NHS has been under unprecedented pressure - that's why we set out our plan to tackle the Covid backlog and deliver long-term recovery and reform, backed by our record multi-billion-pound investment.
"This will deliver new surgical hubs and up to 160 community diagnostic centres across the country to help patients get the surgery they need and earlier access to tests."
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