By Anadolu Agency
The backlog of people waiting for routine hospital treatment in England has reached 7 million, a new record high, the National Health Service England said Thursday.
The figures as of the end of August show a rise of 3% from 6.8 million recorded at the end of this July.
The new record came as the country is struggling to deal with a backlog at hospitals caused by long lockdowns that delayed many hospital treatments in 2020 and 2021.
Health Secretary Therese Coffey recently said the NHS backlog will be cut by clearing thousands of people “who don’t need clinically to be in hospital” from hospital beds.
She said her priorities for improving the NHS will be based on her “ABCD” plan, unpacking the acronym as “ambulances, backlog, care, doctors and dentists,” but gave no further details of the plan.
The ambulance waiting times in the country is also sliding from an 18-minute waiting time as heart attack and stroke patients now wait an average of an hour for an ambulance, according to reports.
The average emergency treatment waiting time has also fluctuated across England.
The number of those waiting more than 12 hours in A&E departments in England this September hit 32,776 people.