According to new data, the number of people waiting for medical treatment on the NHS waiting list has reached record levels.
NHS England revealed that just under 5 million people (4.95 million) are currently on an NHS waiting list for routine treatment, the highest number since records began in August 2007.
The data also showed that the number of people having to wait more than a year to start hospital treatment stood at 436,127 in March. This was the highest number for any calendar month since August 2007, when the figure reached 578,682.
In comparison, during March 2020 the number of people waiting more than 52 weeks to start treatment was just 3,097.
The figures highlight the challenges the NHS and patients have faced in the past year, with hospitals forced to cancel thousands of routine operations throughout the coronavirus pandemic as the health service dealt with the fallout of the coronavirus.
However, there are signs of positive steps with the total number of people admitted for routine treatment in hospitals in England was up 6 per cent in March 2021 compared with a year earlier when the pandemic struck the UK.
220,349 patients were admitted for treatment during the month, compared with 207,754 in March 2020. The figure for a non-pandemic year (2019) was 305,356.
NHS England recently announced £160 million to fund new pilots in 12 areas and five specialist children’s hospitals to trial new ways of cutting the backlog.
They have also asked hospitals to draw up plans to restart routine services with trusts incentivised with more than £1 billion of funding if they can deliver more operations than previously.
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