The number of people waiting to start NHS treatment in England hit 6.4m after wait lists increased by 200,000 in a single month, according to official data.
The latest data shows the number of patients awaiting the start of treatment at the end of March 2022 was 6.4 million patients – up from 6.2m at the end of February.
Of those, 306,286 patients were waiting more than 52 weeks, up slightly from 299,000, while 16,796 patients had been waiting more than 104 weeks as of the end of March.
For patients awaiting the start of treatment at the end of March 2022, the median waiting time was 12 weeks, continuing the drop from 13.1 weeks and 12.5 weeks in the previous two months.
Time to deliver recovery plan
David Hare, chief executive of the Independent Healthcare Providers Network (IHPN), said it was vital that government’s clear commitments in its NHS elective recovery plan to ramp up activity and give patients more choice and control of their care were now translated into concrete action to improve access to treatment.
“Tackling the elective backlog is the public’s number one priority for the NHS,” Hare said.
“People will now want to see the government delivering on its promises, including significantly increasing the use of independent providers, and doing all it can to ensure that the additional National Insurance funding boost which is now in force delivers improved services for patients.”
Off the charts
Siva Anandaciva, chief analyst at The King’s Fund, said the data showed patients’ long waits for hospital care are “sadly off the charts”.
“Long waits for emergency care, previously only seen in the depths of winter, are now commonplace,” Anandaciva added.
“In April, over 24,000 people waited more than 12 hours to be admitted to hospital from A&E – a more than 45-fold increase compared to a year ago.”
Anandaciva also noted the data showed some ambulance service response times are still falling far below the national standards, even for patients with the most serious and urgent health needs.
But he highlighted that staffing was the core problem which government must tackle to address the growing elective care waiting list.
“The waiting list for planned hospital care continues to climb, now standing at 6.4m with almost four in ten people on the list now waiting longer than 18 weeks, far below the target,” Anandaciva continued.
“The top priority for the NHS is to tackle the longest waits, so it is some comfort to see the number of people waiting over two years for planned care starting to come down.
“This week’s Queen’s Speech identified reducing the backlog of care as one of the government’s top three priorities. But the reality check is that until ministers grasp the nettle on health and care staffing shortages, it will be patients who continue to pay the price by waiting longer in discomfort, pain and deteriorating health.”