NHS waiting list backlog will take years to clearon February 8, 2022 at 1:28 pm

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February 8, 2022

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Ministers admit it could take beyond 2024 to start getting numbers on waiting list down.

The waiting list for hospital treatment will not start falling for two years, ministers say, despite unveiling a plan to tackle England’s backlog in care.

There are currently six million people on a waiting list – one in nine of the population.

But Health Secretary Sajid Javid said that number was likely to go up because demand is predicted to start rising now Covid pressure is easing.

He also set out plans to reduce waiting times for cancer treatment.

This includes the introduction in March 2024 of a new 28-day target for cancer diagnosis that had been delayed by the pandemic – it should have been introduced last year.

He said new diagnostic and surgical centres would be set up in the community, while extra investment – totalling £8bn over the next three years – would help hospitals increase the number of patients they can treat.

Graph showing record numbers waiting for hospital treatment in England

Mr Javid said the plan would not just “reset” the NHS to where it was before Covid, but build on what had been learnt and make it “fit for the future”.

But he said it was likely the size of the waiting list would initially increase as the numbers being referred for care had dropped by around 10 million during the pandemic.

It is thought people have been deterred from seeking help for non-urgent care, which covers everything from knee and hip surgery to treatment to improve sight problems and joint pain.

He said the NHS was working on the basis half of these “missing patients” could come forward.

The health secretary also promised to eliminate long waits of over a year by 2025.

Currently more than 300,000 people have waited this long, up from 1,600 before Covid hit.

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About the data

Ambulance queues

When patients arrive at hospital by ambulance they should be handed over within 15 minutes. This data shows the proportion of ambulance patients who waited 30 minutes or more, in the week shown. It comes from daily situation reports which are published weekly during the winter in England. As this is fast-turnaround data, the NHS says only minimal validation can be carried out but it is considered fit for purpose.

Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland do not publish ambulance queue data.

A&E waits

Patients at A&E should be seen within four hours of arrival. This data shows the proportion of patients attending A&E who waited longer than four hours to be treated, discharged or admitted.

This data is published monthly for England and Wales and weekly for Scotland. Northern Ireland publishes its data quarterly and Winter 2021 is not yet available.

Bed waits and occupancy

If a patient at A&E needs to be admitted, the wait from decision to admit to being given a bed on a ward is recorded in England. The bed waits figure is the proportion of patients admitted via A&E who waited longer than four hours for a ward bed.

In Wales, bed wait data is not published, so the figure shown is the occupancy level in general and acute beds. Scotland and Northern Ireland do not publish bed wait or bed occupancy data.

NHS trusts and boards

Data for England is show by NHS trust, where the trust includes at least one hospital with a Type 1 A&E department. Type 1 means a consultant-led 24 hour A&E service with full resuscitation facilities.

When you enter a postcode for a location in England you will be shown a list of NHS trusts in your area. They will not necessarily be in order of your closest hospital as some trusts have more than one hospital. Data for Wales and Scotland are shown by NHS board.

Comparative data from two years ago is shown where available. However, where trusts have merged there is no like-for-like comparison to show. Bed occupancy data in Wales only goes back to April 2020.

If you can’t see the lookup, click here

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