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Revealed: Up to one in EIGHT patients have been waiting over a year for NHS treatment in ‘stark postcode lottery’ – so how bad are queues in your area?
- Manchester had one of the worst levels with 13% of patients waiting over a year
- READ MORE: Senior doctors announce two extra strike days next month
One in eight NHS patients in parts of England have been waiting a year for routine treatment, analysis suggests.
A record 7.47million patients in England, or one in nine people, are now in hospital queues for ops like hip and knee replacements.
This toll includes 380,000 who have endured waits of at least a year, order number medicine business current customers often in pain.
Nationally, year-long for NHS treatment like hip replacements have grown by 15 per cent in the year to May 2023.
But an audit by the Liberal Democrats has today unveiled a ‘stark postcode lottery’ regarding speedy treatment in the health service.
This map shows the 10 NHS regional organisations with the highest proportion of patients who have been waiting over a year for elective treatment
Roughly 13 per cent of patients waiting for elective NHS treatment in both Trafford and Manchester have been stuck in the system for over a year.
Other badly-hit areas include Brighton and Hove and Stockport, where rates of year-long waits stand at about 10 per cent, the analysis claimed.
In comparison, the rate stood at just 0.8 per cent in Sunderland.
The figures, which relate to May, are broken down into sub-integrated care boards (ICBs), regional NHS organisations that coordinate taxpayer-funded care across one particular area or region.
The rise comes despite Prime Minister Rishi Sunak making cutting waiting lists one of his top five priorities for his Government.
READ MORE: Senior doctors announce two extra strike days next month and will walk out again ‘in due course’ following ‘insulting’ 6% pay rise
Consultants – the NHS’s most experienced, highly skilled clinicians – are already striking on Thursday and Friday in a dispute over pay
The Lib Dems said the NHS figures suggest ministers are failing to tackle the issue.
Daisy Cooper, Lib Dem health and social care spokeswoman, said: ‘Rishi promised that NHS waiting lists would fall.
‘Instead, they keep rising with thousands of people left waiting in pain for the treatment they need.
‘These figures reveal a stark postcode lottery, with some areas seeing more than one in eight patients who have been stuck on an NHS waiting list for a year or more.
‘The Government’s failure to get to grips with soaring NHS waiting times is causing untold suffering and damaging our economy by leaving people too sick to return to work.’
In terms of the raw number of patients waiting at least 12 months, Solihull and West Birmingham topped the charts with more than 16,300 on its books.
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: ‘This Government is working to cut waiting times and the NHS is treating record numbers of patients each day.
‘We have virtually eliminated 18-month waits and are taking immediate action to bring down waits of over a year, including reducing the number of patients requiring outpatient follow-up appointments.
‘Our Elective Recovery Taskforce is also going further to unlock the independent sector so patients can be treated more quickly.’
The number of people waiting for routine hospital treatment in England soared to a record 7.42million (red line) in April, figures show. More than 370,000 people in the queue for routine ops, such as hip replacements, were waiting for more than a year (yellow bars)
Health bosses were forced to cancel 108,602 appointments and operations when junior doctors withdrew care for three days in June, including from cancer wards and A&E. It took the total number of postponements as a result of strike action by the likes of junior doctors, nurses, and physiotherapists to 651,232 since December
Waiting lists are predicted to rise even further as medics from the British Medical Association take further strike action this month over pay.
Junior doctors are currently in the middle of a historic five-day walkout from their NSH jobs, with health service consultants are due to stage their own action next week.
Industrial action by NHS staff has already led to the cancelation of over 650,000 patient appointments and operations since December.
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