Waiting Lists Rise Despite NHS Hard Work Leading To Emergency Care Improvements
Britain’s National Health Service experienced significant disruption during the latest round of junior doctor strikes, with an average of 16,162 resident doctors absent from work daily, leading to the rescheduling of over 6,420 inpatient procedures and 47,675 outpatient appointments across five days of industrial action.
Despite the industrial disruption being less severe than June’s strikes, the NHS continues to grapple with mounting pressures as the total waiting list climbed to 7.37 million patients by June, though there were some positive signs with emergency department performance improving to 76.4% of patients being seen within four hours in July and ambulance response times for Category 2 calls dropping to 28 minutes and 40 seconds, beating both the previous month and the government’s 30-minute target for the first time in recent memory.
Rory Deighton, acute director at the NHS Confederation, said:
“These new figures show that NHS leaders and their teams have left no stone unturned to treat patients and keep services open in the face of continuing high demand and a fresh round of industrial action from resident doctors. “
“This has been possible with lower staff absence during this round of strike action than in June 2024. As in previous rounds of strike action by resident doctors, consultants have stepped in to cover rotas often making quicker decisions to admit or discharge patients which has helped ease both demand on urgent and emergency care and the flow of patients throughout hospitals.”
“But the real impact of this further industrial action will be seen on elective care. Although the NHS has worked hard to minimise cancelled appointments, a slow down in the reduction of waiting list numbers is still anticipated. It is disappointing that despite the hard work of NHS leaders and their teams to deliver more treatments than in previous years, the waiting list has still increased slightly. Increasing productivity is going to be vital if the NHS is going to bring down waiting lists long term, and our members tell us that additional capital funding will be key to unlocking that potential.”
“Emergency department teams managed to reduce bottlenecks and free up beds to improve performance against the four-hour target despite having one of the busiest months on record. Category two response times were faster last month, which has eased pressure on wider urgent and emergency care services and enabled quicker triage and treatment for patients.”
“But while there are some promising signs, health service leaders are under no illusion how far there is to go to tackle the backlog, bring down waiting lists, improve productivity and hit the government’s 18 week target.”
Tim Gardner, Assistant Director of Policy at the Health Foundation, said:
‘While summer is often a time for the NHS to catch its breath, today’s data shows hospitals and ambulance services remain under relentless pressure.”
‘July brought modest improvements in A&E waiting times and ambulance response times, but performance is still well below NHS constitutional standards, and many patients are waiting far too long for treatment.”
‘Despite a small fall in waiting times for routine hospital treatment in June, the waiting list remains stubbornly high at 7.37 million. Our recent analysis found the impact is felt more acutely in the most deprived communities, where people consistently face longer waits for treatment than those in more affluent areas.”
‘The slight improvements seen this summer offer a glimmer of hope. However, the commitment to tackling waiting lists needs to ensure that more timely treatment becomes a reality for every patient, regardless of where they live.’
