Hospitals: Waiting Lists

(asked on 3rd September 2018) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the number of people on an NHS referral to treatment waiting list in the (a) latest period for which figures are available and (ii) corresponding period in 2009-10.


Answered by
Steve Barclay Portrait
Steve Barclay
Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
This question was answered on 11th September 2018

NHS England publishes online monthly data for Consultant-led Referral to Treatment (RTT) waiting times which includes the volume of patients on the national elective waiting list. The data from March of each year from 2019-10 to 2017-18 is shown in the following table.

Month

Total waiting (million)

March 2010

2.42

March 2011

2.46

March 2012

2.41

March 2013

2.66

March 2014

2.91

March 2015

3.01

March 2016

3.50

March 2017

3.73

March 2018

3.84

Source: NHS England

The National Health Service is treating more people than ever before. In 2016/17, latest data available, the NHS carried out 11.9 million operations, 2.2 million more than in 2009/10.

To guarantee the future of the NHS and to ensure it continues to deliver for patients the Government has announced a new five-year budget settlement for the NHS, which will see funding grow on average by 3.4% in real terms each year to 2023-24. This will mean the NHS budget will increase by over £20 billion in real terms by 2023-24, compared with today. This additional funding will underpin a 10 year plan to guarantee the future of the NHS for the long term.

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