NHS waiting list in England reaches record high of 7.6 million despite PM Rishi Sunak's pledge

As per a recent release of data, the NHS waiting lists in England have ascended to record high numbers, despite Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's pledge to bring them down this year.

This was one of the five promises Sunak made earlier this year in his first major speech of 2023.

The figures published by NHS England this morning revealed an estimated 7.6 million people were waiting to start treatment at the end of June this year, which is slightly up from the numbers recorded in the month of May which were 7.5 million.

Add WION as a Preferred Source

These are the highest numbers ever reported since the records began in the year 2007.

During his speech at the beginning of this year, Sunak had said, “NHS waiting lists will fall and people will get the care they need more quickly.”

The NHS data also showed that the total number of people, who had been waiting for more than 52 weeks to start routine hospital treatment at the end of June, had gone down from 385,022 to 383,083.

At the end of June, the estimated figure to have been waiting for more than 18 months was 7,177, as compared to 11,446, which was recorded at the end of May.

Both the government and NHS England had aimed at eliminating waitings of more than 18 months by April 2023, except for the complex cases.

The revelation of the figures comes after the NHS declared that the patients impacted by backlogs could bypass the queue at their local hospital if they are ready to travel to other parts of England.

“We must use every available resource to deliver life-saving checks to ease pressure on the NHS,” PA Media quoted Health Secretary Steve Barclay as saying.

The Royal College of Nursing's (RCN) chief nursing officer Nicola Ranger warned the health service “is falling into a deeper crisis”.

“A decade of underinvestment in the NHS has led to dire consequences for patients and pushed many nursing staff out of the profession they love and with unrelenting pressure on those who remain,” she added.

Strikes by doctors led to postponements: NHS England

The strikes by junior doctors have also impacted the waiting lists.

NHS England released a statement saying that, in the month of June this year, three days of junior doctors' strikes led to 106,120 postponements.

"To date, around 778,000 hospital appointments across the NHS have been rescheduled due to strike action," it further added,

Junior doctors would be staging their fifth strike in the dispute on Friday, where they will be walking out for four days from 7 am.

(With inputs from agencies)

WATCH WION LIVE HERE

You can now write for wionews.com and be a part of the community. Share your stories and opinions with us here.