WAITING lists for treatment at Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust have risen to 62,647, according to new figures released by health chiefs
Of those waiting, a total of 5,317 have been waiting longer than a year. The NHS target is for patients to wait no longer than 18 weeks for hospital treatment, but 51 per cent of patients on waiting lists locally are waiting longer than that.
The number of people waiting for treatment across England has increased each month since Rishi Sunak pledged to cut NHS waiting lists. Since he became Prime Minister, waiting lists have grown by 724,000 patients nationally.
Latest figures show a record 7.68 million people were waiting for treatment at the end of July.
This represents nearly one in seven people and is a jump of more than 100,000 in a month.
Doctors’ strikes are hampering NHS efforts to bring down waiting lists, but the Health Secretary hasn’t met junior doctors since May or consultants since March.
The Government has announced an extra £200million for the NHS this winter, following talks with health bosses.
This is on top of a £250million boost already announced earlier in the summer, which is helping pay for 5,000 extra hospital beds and 10,000 virtual beds where patients are supported at home by doctors for conditions such as respiratory and heart problems that would normally lead to a hospital admission.
Labour has pledged to cut waiting times and ensure that the target of treatment within 18 weeks is met once again.
The party is pledging to oversee the biggest expansion of NHS staff in history, training thousands more doctors and nurses a year.
The health service will also focus more on providing healthcare in the community and make greater use of modern technology, so problems are caught earlier when it is simpler to treat patients and cheaper for the taxpayer.
Tom Collins, Labour’s Parliamentary Candidate for Worcester said: “Record numbers of us are waiting for healthcare and we’re waiting far too long. Staff are working incredibly hard but the government have run the NHS into the ground.
“Here in Worcester, I regularly speak to people with devastating stories of being let down – they feel like the NHS is no longer there for them when they need it.
“All we’re getting from the Conservative government is inaction. Rishi Sunak refuses to meet with doctors, adding the impact of strikes to the growing NHS backlog, and its patients who are left waiting for months in pain and anxiety.
“Labour is the party of the NHS and we desperately need a Labour government to restore it to good health.
“Labour will train thousands of new staff and reform the NHS to be fit for the future – so it will be there for us when we need it once again.
