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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Pamela Duncan, Michael Goodier and Anna Bawden

Which UK nation has the longest NHS waiting list?

NHS England Steve Barclay United Kingdom Scotland Wales Northern Ireland
A&E at Wexham Park Hospital in Slough
Steve Barclay’s claims that NHS waiting lists in England are much shorter than those in Wales have been challenged by Cardiff politicians. Photograph: Rex/Shutterstock

The numbers are striking in their enormous size: 7.6 million people are now on waiting lists in England, a figure that has been growing in recent years, breaking records in all but three of the last 30 months.

Therefore, English patients may have been surprised to hear that Steve Barclay is open to Welsh and Scottish patients on long waiting lists for treatment being able to request NHS care in England.

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