Progress in Reducing NHS Waiting Times Has ‘Stagnated,’ Says Think Tank

Progress in bringing down NHS wait times to pre-pandemic levels has “stagnated” and long waits “remain endemic,” a think tank has said. On Thursday, NHS England released data showing 307,500 people had been waiting more than 52 weeks to start routine hospital treatment at the end of May 2024, up from 302,589 at the end of April. Overall, 6.38 million patients were waiting for an estimated 7.6 million pre-planned treatments at the end of May. Though this is a relatively small increase from the previous month—when 6.44 million people were waiting for 7.57 million treatments—it’s about two-thirds higher than in February 2020, the last month before the March lockdowns and when the number of pending treatments was 4.57 million....