Worsening situation: increase in waiting times for non-urgent surgery in Wigan

With the overall NHS waiting list in England growing for the first time in seven months, the Royal College of Nursing said “there will be no place to hide for the next government” when it comes to bringing the figures down.

NHS England figures show 54,550 patients were waiting for non-urgent elective operations or treatment at Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (WWL) at the end of April – up from 53,182 in March and 50,574 in April 2023.

Of those, 2,573 (five per cent) had been waiting for longer than a year.

The median waiting time from referral at an NHS trust to treatment at WWL facilities was 15 weeks at the end of April – down from 16 weeks in March.

Nationally, 7.57m people were waiting to start treatment at the end of April. This was up slightly from 7.54m at the end of March and the first time the NHS waiting list has risen in seven months.

Patricia Marquis, executive director of the Royal College of Nursing, said: “Excuses, vague promises and unambitious levels of investment will not get patients the care they need. Politicians with their eyes on Number 10 need to wake up to that fact.”

Saffron Cordery, deputy chief executive of NHS Providers, said: “Trust leaders and their teams are working flat out to ensure no patient waits longer than they need to receive care, but this increasingly feels like an uphill battle.”

Separate figures show 1.6m patients in England were waiting for a key diagnostic test in April, the same as in March.

At WWL hospitals, 8,683 patients were waiting for one of 12 standard tests, such as an MRI scan, non-obstetric ultrasound or gastroscopy, at this time.

Of them, 1,926 (22 per cent) had been waiting for at least six weeks.

Other figures show cancer patients at WWL were not being seen quickly enough.

The NHS states 85 per cent of cancer patients with an urgent referral should start treatment within 62 days.

But NHS England data shows just 77 per cent of cancer patients urgently referred to Wigan hospitals in April began treatment within two months of their referral.

That was down from both 78 per cent in March and 84 per cent in April 2023.

Mairaid McMahon, policy manager at Macmillan Cancer Support, said: “Despite the tireless efforts of NHS staff, people with cancer are being failed by a healthcare system that is not being given the resources it needs to support them.

She added a long-term strategy for the cancer care system must be prioritised, “so that diagnosis is made early, treatment starts quickly and support is on hand”.

During a recent Sky News interview, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak admitted: “We’ve not made as much progress on cutting waiting lists as I would have liked.”

Sir Keir Starmer has vowed a Labour government would bring down waiting lists by creating 40,000 new appointments per week.

Shadow health secretary Wes Streeting said: “This has blown a hole in Rishi Sunak’s claim that the NHS has turned a corner.

“He promised to cut waiting lists, but they are 350,000 longer today than when he became Prime Minister.”