PM Rishi Sunak visits a hospital in Devon (Image: Getty)
A record 7.7 million people are on a hospital waiting list in England, grim new figures show.
The total at the end of July -represents nearly one in seven -people and is a jump of more than 100,000 in a month.
It means Rishi Sunak’s pledge to bring down waiting lists is under threat. The Prime Minister, who visited patients at North Devon District Hospital in Barnstaple, blamed strikes for adding to the pressures facing the NHS.
Ministers have announced an extra ￡200million for the NHS this winter. This is on top of a ￡250million boost already announced this summer, which is helping pay for 5,000 extra hospital beds and 10,000 virtual beds where patients are supported at home by doctors for conditions that would normally lead to a hospital admission.
The waiting list for treatment has been growing for the last decade, passing three million in 2014, four million in 2017, five -million in 2021 and seven million in 2022.
In February 2020 the waiting list stood at 4.57 million.
Since then, the list has risen by just over three million, to 7.68 million, the latest NHS England show. Mr Sunak has made cutting waiting lists one of his priorities for 2023.
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Asked if he would miss his goal he told the BBC: “With industrial action it is very hard to continue to meet these targets.”
The data shows 389,952 people in England had been waiting more than 52 weeks to start routine hospital treatment at the end of July, up from 383,083 at the end of June.
And 7,289 people in England are thought to have been waiting more than 18 months to start routine hospital treatment at the end of July, up from 7,177 at the end of June.
Siva Anandaciva, chief analyst at the King’s Fund, said: “There -continues to be real issues with how long patients are waiting for care in key services, including in A&E. Industrial action, including next week’s unprecedented combined junior doctors’ and consultants’ strike, will hinder the NHS’s ability to clear this backlog.”
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PM Rishi Sunak with NHS staff (Image: Getty)
NHS England said ambulance response times have improved for the third month in a row despite A&Es facing their busiest summer ever. There were more than 6.5 -million attendances in A&Es across June, July and August – more than 20,000 higher than the previous record in 2019, it said.
It also pointed to an improvement in waits for planned care.
Professor Julian Redhead, NHS England’s national clinical director for urgent and emergency Care, said: “Today’s figures show despite ongoing pressures across the NHS, including record demand for -emergency care this summer, and an increase in Covid cases during July and August, NHS staff are -continuing to deliver for patients.” He said ambulance response times for serious cases are more than 10 -minutes faster than a year ago.
Thousands of patients most at risk of ovarian cancer could be referred for genetic tests under new guidelines from the health -watchdog. It is hoped it will encourage those at risk to take preventative -measures such as surgery.
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