Hospital waiting lists hit six million in England

13 January 2022

By Nick Triggle

Health correspondent

The number of people on a hospital waiting list in England has hit six million for the first time.

And about one in 20 of those has been waiting - for routine care such as knee and hip surgery - for more than a year.

The figures are for the end of November - before the Omicron variant of the Covid-19 virus hit the country.

Also, in December, nearly 27% of patients arriving at an emergency department waited more than four hours to be seen - another record high.

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About the data

Ambulance queues

When patients arrive at hospital by ambulance they should be handed over within 15 minutes. This data shows the proportion of ambulance patients who waited 30 minutes or more, in the week shown. It comes from daily situation reports which are published weekly during the winter in England. As this is fast-turnaround data, the NHS says only minimal validation can be carried out but it is considered fit for purpose.

Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland do not publish ambulance queue data.

A&E waits

Patients at A&E should be seen within four hours of arrival. This data shows the proportion of patients attending A&E who waited longer than four hours to be treated, discharged or admitted.

This data is published monthly for England and Wales and weekly for Scotland. Northern Ireland publishes its data quarterly and Winter 2021 is not yet available.

Bed waits and occupancy

If a patient at A&E needs to be admitted, the wait from decision to admit to being given a bed on a ward is recorded in England. The bed waits figure is the proportion of patients admitted via A&E who waited longer than four hours for a ward bed.

In Wales, bed wait data is not published, so the figure shown is the occupancy level in general and acute beds. Scotland and Northern Ireland do not publish bed wait or bed occupancy data.

NHS trusts and boards

Data for England is show by NHS trust, where the trust includes at least one hospital with a Type 1 A&E department. Type 1 means a consultant-led 24 hour A&E service with full resuscitation facilities.

When you enter a postcode for a location in England you will be shown a list of NHS trusts in your area. They will not necessarily be in order of your closest hospital as some trusts have more than one hospital. Data for Wales and Scotland are shown by NHS board.

Comparative data from two years ago is shown where available. However, where trusts have merged there is no like-for-like comparison to show. Bed occupancy data in Wales only goes back to April 2020.

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Patients needing a bed on a ward also faced record delays.

More than 120,000 - almost one in three of those admitted - spent more than four hours waiting for a bed.

And nearly 13,000 waited more than 12 hours - another high since records began, in 2010.

Demand for ambulances was also high, with crews struggling to reach patients on time.

On average, it took more than nine minutes to reach an immediately life-threatening callout in December - the target is seven.

For emergencies such as strokes and heart attacks, it took more than 53 minutes on average - it is meant to take less than 18.

Both figures, however, showed slight improvements on the performance in October.

'I had heart-attack scare but made own way to A&E'

When Fraser Farndon, from Greater Manchester, had a heart attack in 2016, he was on the operating table within an hour.

But this year, when he called for an ambulance, with the same symptoms, on New Year's Day, the father of two, was told it would be a two-hour wait.

In the end, his father-in-law took him to the Royal Oldham Hospital.

"I have never seen it so busy in A&E, over 100 people and it was over a seven-hour wait," Mr Farndon, 37, said.

He was finally given the all-clear nine hours after first contacting emergency services.

Patricia Marquis, of the Royal College of Nursing, said the NHS was clearly "struggling to treat patients safely".

NHS medical director Prof Stephen Powis said the Omicron variant, first identified in South Africa, was putting huge pressures on hospitals, not just because of the numbers of patients being admitted - about 2,000 a day on average - but also because of staff absences.

But he added: "Despite this, once again, NHS staff pulled out all the stops to keep services going for patients."

Hospital waiting lists hit six million in England

How is the NHS in your area coping this winter?

About the data

About the data

Ambulance queues

A&E waits

Bed waits and occupancy

NHS trusts and boards

'I had heart-attack scare but made own way to A&E'

Related Topics

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