New health and social care secretary Therese Coffey has been told to “bust the backlog” as NHS England data shows the number of people waiting to start NHS treatment in England has risen by 20,000 to hit a new record of 6.8 million.
The latest data shows the number of patients awaiting the start of treatment at the end of July was marginally up from 6.78 million at the end of June. The figure stood at 4.44 million before the Covid-19 pandemic hit in March 2020.
Of the 6.8 million, 377,689 patients were waiting more than 52 weeks, up from 355,774 patients at the end of June and 2,885 patients were waiting more than 104 weeks – down from 3,861 over the same period.
For patients waiting to start treatment at the end of July 2022, the median waiting time stayed at 13.3 weeks.
NHS England pointed out that Ashford and St Peter’s Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (RTK), Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust (RDU) and Guy’s and St Thomas NHS Foundation Trust did not submit any RTT pathway data this month.
It added that factoring in estimates based on the latest data submitted for the missing trust suggests the total number of RTT patients waiting to start treatment at the end of July 2022 was 6.94 million patients.
Bust the backlog
David Hare, chief executive of the Independent Healthcare Providers Network, told new Health and Social Care Secretary Therese Coffey to tackle the growing backlog of care and “get a grip” of the growing crisis in the NHS.
“To bust the backlog, the welcome comments made last month from government that patients will be able to use the NHS app to shop around for hospitals with the shortest waiting lists must urgently be made a reality so that NHS patients aren’t left languishing,” Hare said.
“Recent IHPN research conducted with the Patients Association found that across England, patients need to travel just 13.2 miles – around 30 minutes by car – to cut over three and a half months off their NHS waiting time by choosing an alternative provider.
“The new Secretary of State has rightly said that she is here to stand up for patients, and it’s vital that the public can access all the information they need to choose the fastest possible treatment for them and their families. And with over half of all people waiting for NHS treatment of working age, this must be now seen as an economic, as well as health priority.”
Matter of weeks
Richard Murray, chief executive of The King’s Fund, agreed – claiming the new PM and Secretary of State only have a “matter of weeks” to decide what emergency short term action to take to provide at least some additional support during what promises to be a terrible winter for patients and staff.
“This could include maximising the campaigns for winter Covid boosters and flu vaccines, tackling the pensions issue driving senior staff out of the NHS, and emergency funding to boost capacity in social care,” Murray continued.
“Without urgent action we can expect ambulance delays to get even longer and more and more people at risk of harm in overcrowded A&E departments as the rising cost of living and winter start to bite, which could drive further spikes in demand,” he added.
“Longer term, sustainable recovery for health and care services can only come from confronting the workforce crisis that long predates the pandemic, and which successive governments have ducked.”