PM struggling on pledge to cut NHS waiting times as another record broken

ITV News Political Reporter Shehab Khan heard directly from staff and patients about the issues currently facing them

Another NHS waiting list record has been broken, with more than 7 million people in England still waiting to start routine hospital treatment, showing the prime minister is struggling with his pledge to speed up the health service.

An estimated 7.3 million people were waiting to start treatment at the end of March, up from 7.2 million in February, NHS England said. It is the highest number since records began in August 2007.

In January, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said one of his top five priorities of bringing waiting lists down, insisting "lists will fall and people will get the care they need more quickly".

However there has been some success in the beleaguered health service, with the number of people waiting more than 18 months to start routine treatment down by almost 20,000.

There were 10,737 people waiting a year and a half for treatment at the end of March, which is down from 29,778 at the end of February.

But this is another metric on which the government has failed to achieve its aims.

The ambition was to have completely eliminated all waits of more than 18 months by April of this year, excluding exceptionally complex cases or patients who choose to wait longer.

Despite this, Downing Street insisted “progress is being made” in cutting waiting lists.

“There is a reason that cutting the waiting lists is one of the prime minister’s five priorities. There is more work to be done, but progress is being made. As the statistics out today show, we are reducing 18-month waits by over 90%, that is huge progress,” the prime minister’s official spokesman said.

“Obviously, the virtual elimination of the two-year waits is already being met and we now turn our focus to the 65-week wait."

Downing Street also said almost half of all the remaining patients waiting more than 18-months are concentrated in 10 NHS trusts.

The trusts with the most patients facing the wait are:

  • Manchester University with 969

  • University Hospitals of Leicester with 837, and;

  • Royal Devon University Healthcare 695, according to NHS England data.

The impact of strikes on NHS waiting lists

NHS England says progress on the backlog was stymied because of "the most disruptive industrial action in its history".

Around 500,000 hospital appointments have been postponed since the start of December due to strikes, while almost 200,000 appointments were affected during just the four days of junior doctor strike action in April.

Assistant director of policy at the Health Foundation, Tim Gardner, said: “With services and staff under intense pressure, patients continue to pay the price.

“Resolving the current pay disputes should help avoid more short-term disruption, so the recent headway made by the government and trade unions is welcome.

“However, this will not address the underlying challenges facing the health service and those who work in it.”

Mr Sunak said:  “Reducing 18-month waits by over 90% is huge progress, and it is testament to the hard work of NHS staff who have achieved this despite one of the busiest winters on record.

“We still have work to do, but backed by record government investment and the ongoing efforts of the NHS, I am confident we will get patients the care they need more quickly.”

There has been a reduction in the number of people waiting more than 12 hours in A&E departments in England in the last month. Credit: PA

Progress on other waiting lists

There is one target the government may be on course to hit, albeit with a very long way to go.

The number of people in England waiting more than 52 weeks to start routine hospital treatment has fallen slightly.

A total of 359,798 were waiting a year for routine hospital treatment at the end of March, down from 362,498 at the end of February.

The government and NHS England have set the ambition of eliminating all waits of more than a year by March 2025.

Another achievement for the government is a reduction in the number of people waiting more than 12 hours in A&E departments in England, from a decision to admit to actually being admitted. The figure stood at 26,899 in April, down 32% from 39,687 in March.

The number waiting at least four hours from the decision to admit to admission has also fallen, from 144,308 in March to 113,437 in April, a drop of 21%.

However for cancer patients, targets have not been met.

GPs made 260,308 urgent cancer referrals in England in March, up both month-on-month (by 13% compared with February 2023) and year-on-year (by 3% compared with March 2022).

Ambulances response times for the most urgent call outs have improved but not hit their target. Credit: PA

But, the proportion who saw a specialist within two weeks of those urgent GP referrals fell from 86.1% in February to 83.9% in March, remaining below the 93% target.

According to NHS England, 19,248 people had waited longer than 62 days since an urgent GP referral for suspected cancer in the week ending April 2.

While this down from nearly 34,000 at the end of September 2022, it does not meet the government and NHS England's target of returning to pre-pandemic levels by March 2023 - a weekly average of 13,463 for February 2020.

Some 63.5% of cancer patients, who had their first treatment in March after an urgent GP referral, had waited less than two months, up from 58.2% in February - the target is 85%.

The government also missed a key target of eliminating 18-month waits for planned NHS care such as knee and hip replacements.

Data from NHS England shows 10,737 people were waiting more than 18 months to start routine treatment at the end of March, this is down from 29,778 at the end of February.

Ambulances average response times in April, for dealing with the most urgent category 1 incidents, was eight minutes and seven seconds, down from eight minutes and 49 seconds in March but above the target of seven minutes.

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Health and Social Care Secretary Steve Barclay said: “Thanks to the hard work and dedication of healthcare staff backed by government support, the NHS has now cut 18-month waits by more than 91% - a significant reduction from the peak which saw almost 125,000 people waiting for treatment.

“Today’s significant milestone shows we’re delivering on our Elective Recovery Plan despite NHS strikes and the challenging winter.

“This comes after virtually eliminating waits of two years last summer. We are progressing with our plan including improving access to emergency care, with the latest statistics showing the quickest ambulance response times for the most urgent cases in almost two years.

"We will continue to work with the NHS to pull out all the stops to cut the Covid backlogs, backed by up to £14.1 billion over the next two years on top of record funding.”