,
Labour’s Shadow Health and Social Care
Secretary, responding to the latest statistics showing
nearly 5.9 million people are on the NHS England waiting list,
said:
“We’ve heard serious warnings from hospital chiefs about the
unsustainable pressure the NHS is under. Today, we’ve had
confirmation of dangerously lengthy waiting times patients are
forced to endure and the scale of pressure on overwhelmed
A&Es.
“The coming winter weeks are set to be the most challenging in
history for the NHS. It’s now urgent Ministers fix the stalling
vaccination programme, resolve the immediate crisis in social
care and bring forward a long term plan to recruit the health
care staff our NHS now desperately needs, which has failed to provide despite
imposing a punishing tax rise on working people.”
Ends
Notes to editors
- There are over 5.8 million people on the NHS waiting list,
the highest on record - NHS England
Note: Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust did
not submit any RTT pathway data. 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 September 2021 was 5.86 million patients.
- 73.9% of patients were seen within 4 hours in all A&E
departments this October compared to 75.2% in September 2021,
84.4% in October 2020, and 83.6% in October 2019. The 95%
standard was last met in July 2015. This is the lowest
performance recorded since this collection began - NHS England
