The number of people waiting to begin routine hospital treatment in England has reached an all-time high, and waits at A&E, for cancer care, and for ambulances to arrive are also increasing.

At the end of December, nearly 6.1 million people were on the waiting list for surgery, the highest number since records began in August 2007.

The number of people who had to wait more than 52 weeks to begin non-urgent treatment increased to 310,813, up from 306,996 the previous month and 39% higher than in December 2020. A total of 20,065 people had been waiting for more than two years. Overall, 92% of patients on the waiting list are scheduled to be treated within 18 weeks.

Sarah Scobie, the deputy director of research at the Nuffield Trust thinktank, said that “these figures show that sadly millions of patients and their families will be waiting anxiously or in pain for routine or planned surgery for some considerable time to come."

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The figures from NHS England come just two days after the organization released its elective recovery plan, which outlines how it intends to reduce waiting times. It intends to address the backlog by utilizing community diagnostic centers where people can have tests such as scans and X-rays, as well as surgical hubs that perform large numbers of the same type of operation, such as joint replacements.

There is a growing concern in Downing Street and among Conservative MPs that stubbornly long, waiting lists will be a problem in the run-up to the next election, scheduled for May 2024. Ministers have been told that the total number of people on the waiting list could reach 10.7 million, or 9.2 million in the best-case scenario, by spring 2024.

The Guardian reported this week that in the first seven months of 2021-22, 290,428 people in England with possible cancer symptoms did not see a specialist within 14 days of being referred by a GP, as the NHS seeks to guarantee, and the total could reach nearly 500,000 – more than double the previous highest annual tally of 235,549 – by the end of March.

According to the most recent monthly figures, over 400,000 people had to wait more than two weeks to see a specialist in 2021, with 33% – the highest ever – having to wait more than 62 days to begin treatment. According to Minesh Patel, head of policy at Macmillan Cancer Support, performance against the series of cancer waiting times has been "going from bad to worse over the last year."

Almost 300,000 people with heart problems are now on the waiting list for surgery, such as a stent to keep damaged arteries open.