NHS will fail to hit waiting list target as A&Es face winter ‘tripledemic’

The NHS is likely to miss a key target to treat patients waiting more than a year for care, surgeons have warned, as new data shows A&E waits are increasing ahead of winter.

A core target to eliminate the backlog of patients waiting more than 65 weeks for NHS treatment by September is likely to be missed with 45,527 patients still waiting for more than a year and a quarter in August 2024, according to the Royal College of Surgeons.

Overall, some 6.42 million patients were estimated to be waiting for treatment at the end of August - up from 6.39 million in July. The number of treatments waiting to be carried out stood at 7.64 million in August, up from 7.62 million the previous month.

Professor Sir Stephen Powis, NHS national medical director, said: “These latest figures show the pressure we saw over summer is not letting up with too many patients waiting too long for treatment, following a record September for A&E attendances.”

“We know this is likely to be another incredibly busy winter, with extra demand and the threat of a ‘tripledemic’ of Covid, flu and RSV [Respiratory syncytial virus], and last month we set out our winter plan which included better data reporting and more care in the community like falls services and virtual wards, so we can see patients as quickly as possible in the busy months ahead.”

Read full story

Source: The Independent, 10 October 2024