Six million people now on hospital waiting lists in England

NHS data shows that the number of people on a hospital waiting list in England has reached six million for the first time, around one in 20 of those have been waiting for longer than a year.

 

The figure is for the end of November and includes operations such as hip and knee surgery.

 

Meanwhile, waits in Accident and Emergency departments reached record worst levels in December.  Just over 73 per cent of those who arrived at an emergency department were seen in four hours.

 

Record delays were also seen for people who needed a bed on a ward, and more than 120,000 admitted patients spent over four hours waiting for a bed, almost a third of the total.

 

Professor Stephen Powis, NHS medical director, said Omicron was putting huge pressures on hospitals not only due to the number of patients being admitted, around 2,000 a day on average, but also due to staff absences.

 

However, he added “Despite this, once again, NHS staff pulled out all the stops to keep services going for patients.”

 

Chadwick Lawrence’s specialist team of clinical negligence lawyers have years of experience in medical negligence claims, providing support and guidance after life-changing events.  Not only do we represent clients in Yorkshire, but because of our reputation we also represent clients nationally.

 

If you believe that you or a relative may have been injured as a result of clinical/medical negligence, please call for free legal advice from our medical negligence solicitors on the freephone number below.

 

Posted by Karen Motley, Clinical Negligence Department, Chadwick Lawrence LLP (tonymay@chadlaw.co.uk ), medical negligence lawyers and clinical negligence solicitors in Huddersfield, Leeds, Wakefield and Halifax, West Yorkshire.

 

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