Publisher Health

The government is making progress on cutting NHS waiting lists in England, the prime minister insists, as latest figures show targets are being missed.

Rishi Sunak said: “While we haven’t made as much progress as I would like, today’s figures show we are making headway towards that goal.”

Waiting lists for routine treatments were around 7.54 million in February, down from 7.58 million in January.

Opponents say waiting times are still too long.

Labour highlighted that waiting lists were still higher than when Mr Sunak pledged to bring them down at the start of 2023.

The Liberal Democrats accused the prime minister of “living in a parallel universe”.

Mr Sunak said long-running strikes by consultants and junior doctors had had an impact on patients.

Referring to the overall waiting list for treatment of 7.54 million, the PM said: “A drop of almost 200,000 in the last five months shows what the NHS can do for patients. Had there been no strike action, an extra 430,000 patients could have been treated.

“We still have more work to do, but our plan is working.”

He added: “When I became prime minister, I made cutting the NHS waiting lists one of my top five priorities. Today’s statistics clearly show we are making headway towards that goal.”

The NHS recovery plan set a target for the end of March for 76% of patients attending A&E to be admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours.

Another target in the plan was to eliminate all waits of 65 week or more for treatment by March this year. This has been pushed back to September.

In an exclusive interview, the BBC’s Health Editor Hugh Pym challenged the prime minister, asking him what he would say to patients who have waited longer than 65 weeks, often in pain.

Mr Sunak said: “None of this is acceptable and I’m doing absolutely everything I can to bring the waiting list down.”

The latest NHS England figures show:

Wes Streeting, Labour’s shadow health secretary, said: “Rishi Sunak has failed on the NHS. He’s missed his own targets to cut ambulance waits and A&E waits.

“Patients with suspected heart attacks or strokes are waiting almost double the safe amount of time, when every minute matters.

“Doctors have said that patients in desperate need of care have been left waiting for 24 hours in A&E, while relatively healthy patients have been seen faster in order to hit this four-hour target.”

Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey said: “This week we uncovered that over 150,000 people waited over 24 hours in A&E last year. Now we find that waiting lists have gone up by 330,000 after Rishi Sunak pledged to cut them.

“To add insult to injury, the Conservatives have cut NHS spending while millions of patients are suffering in pain on endless waiting lists.

“Rishi Sunak is living in a parallel universe if he thinks our National Health Service is recovering.

“The Conservative Party and the prime minister are out of touch, out of ideas and deserve to be kicked out of office.”