NHS crisis: how many are on the waiting list in Gloucestershire?
As Keir Starmer describes the NHS as “broken but not beaten”, new data reveals the scale of the task ahead of the new government. The Prime Minister blames the previous Conservative government for "breaking" the healthcare system, and says: "People have the right to be angry".
A total of 7.62 million people were on the NHS waiting list in July this year, according to the latest data released today. That’s up from 2.68 million in July 2010, shortly after the Conservative-led coalition came to power.
In February 2020, just before the Covid-19 pandemic, 4.54 million people were on the waiting list. There were 72,695 people on the waiting list at Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in July.
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That’s down from 75,051 at the same time last year, but up from 63,585 in 2022, and 54,496 in July 2019, before the pandemic struck.
Gloucestershire waiting list chart
Starmer has also highlighted the long waiting times in A&E. More than a third (37.5%) of attendances at major 'type 1' A&Es in August took more than four hours from arrival to admission, transfer or discharge. That’s down marginally from 38.6% in July, and is better than the 40.9% and 42.0% at the same time in each of the last two years respectively.
The number of patients waiting in A&E for over 12 hours fell to 28,494 people in August. It's down from 54,308 in January and is marginally better than 28,863 in August last year.
However, before the Covid pandemic, in August 2019, just 371 people had to wait over 12 hours in A&E. More than a third (37.1%) of attendances at major “type 1” A&Es in Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust during August took more than four hours from arrival to admission, transfer or discharge.
That’s down from 43.0% at the same time last year and 42.5% in August 2022. In the summer before the pandemic though, just 11.8% of A&E attendances took longer than four hours.
The NHS continues to miss its key cancer waiting time targets. Just 91.9% of patients had to wait less than a month from a decision to treat to the start of treatment. That’s short of the target of 96.0%.
Just over a third (67.7%) of urgent cancer referrals waited less than 62 days from screening referral to treatment starting. That’s compared to a target of 85.0%.