NHS waiting lists: Rishi Sunak fails on key pledge as 7.5m people languish

Rishi Sunak has failed to deliver on his key promise to cut NHS waits, the health secretary has admitted, as new figures show that the overall waiting list now stands at 7.5 million.

An extra 300,000 patients are waiting for hospital care compared with January last year, when the prime minister pledged that, under his government, “NHS waiting lists will fall and people will get the care they need more quickly” .

Victoria Atkins, the health secretary, admitted that Sunak had failed to deliver on his promise but argued: “I don’t think anyone could have thought that it was an easy promise to make and it was going to be easy to achieve.”

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Source: The Times, 11 April 2024