1.5m fewer people on waiting list than thought

NHS England has revealed it estimates there are 5.5 million people on elective referral to treatment waiting lists, rather than the 7 million which is often reported.

No figures have previously been given for the number of separate individuals, but many in politics, policy and the media have often indicated it is the same as the total number of entries on the RTT list – which hit 7 million in August.

NHSE elective recovery chief Sir Jim Mackey, speaking at the King’s Fund annual conference in London yesterday, revealed an estimate for the first time of the number of individuals.

Sir Jim said: “It’s actually 5.5 million people, but seven million entries on the waiting list. There are around a million and a half people, we think, who are on multiple times. So, it’s a lot more complicated than we all think.”

He said it was not clear how many were patients waiting for genuinely separate issues or procedures, and how many were duplicates for the same pathway – essentially errors. Sir Jim said he hoped a new NHSE project would clarify the picture.

He said: “Sometimes there are people on twice, where they need one thing then another thing. Other times it’s a bit more complicated… We’re just about to start a process with a handful of organisations to try and work out what that means.”

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Source: HSJ, 2 November 2022