Thousands of the longest waiters get treatment as NHS drives down long waits for care

The number of people waiting more than two years for NHS treatment in England has dropped by two-thirds since February, new figures show today, as the NHS continues to make progress in the biggest catch-up in health service history.

The milestone comes despite the busiest May ever for emergency care, with health bosses calling on the public to use NHS 111 by phone or online for non-urgent health concerns, to ensure patients access the best care for their needs and help ease pressures on the service.

New survey data shows almost one in five (19.1%) people who received care through 111 said they would have otherwise called 999, while more than a quarter (26.2%) say they would have gone to an A&E. Almost one in 10 (7.1%) said they would not have contacted anyone else about their health problem if NHS 111 had not been available.

Separately, the monthly performance figures published today show last month saw the second-highest number of A&E attendances at 2.2 million – second only to July 2019 where 2.3 million people went to A&E.

It was also the busiest May ever for 999 calls answered (853,065) and the most urgent Ambulance call outs (77,934 Category 1 calls).

This pressure came as NHS staff once again had to contend with challenges discharging patients into community and social care. On each day last month fewer than half the patients ready for discharge left hospital when they were ready to, leading to many thousands of patients spending more time in hospital than needed.

Since the NHS’ COVID elective recovery plan was published in February, the number of people waiting more than two years for treatment has dropped by two-thirds, with 40 Trusts already eliminating the number of people waiting 104+ weeks. The number of people waiting 104+ weeks has dropped from 22,299 to 7,533, as of the week ending June 5th – a 66.2% reduction (down 14,766).  While the number of people waiting for a diagnostic test went down in April – showing the NHS is making inroads into the backlog.

As MP for Norwich North, ensuring that we have the NHS investment we need is one of my priorities. To find out more about what action I am taking both in Norwich and Westminster for this work, please visit: https://www.chloesmith.org.uk/myplan/NHS

For further information on this announcement, please visit: https://www.england.nhs.uk/2022/06/thousands-of-the-longest-waiters-get-treatment-as-nhs-drives-down-long-waits-for-care/

If constituents need to contact me on this matter, or any other issue, please do email me at chloe@chloesmith.org.uk or ring my constituency office on 01603 414756