Record number of patients starting NHS treatment but winter pressures loom large

Responding to the latest NHS monthly performance statistics and weekly winter sit rep report, Nuffield Trust Fellow Jessica Morris said:

“The slight fall in the number of people waiting for routine NHS treatment is welcome progress. NHS staff got record numbers of patients starting treatment in October 2023, which will have helped finally start to reverse month on month growth of the waiting list.

“While this is good news, it is hard to look past the huge waiting list that remains in place. This drop is only a small fraction (54,000 people), with over 6.4 million people still waiting. Overall, the elective waiting list is 370,000 people higher than it was when the prime minister made his pledge to cut long waits at the beginning of the year. The reality is that it will take time and a lot of hard work to sustain this momentum, particularly during the difficult winter months to come.

“The latest weekly winter performance figures show that the health service is already operating under severe strain. In the week commencing 4^th December, there were more than 28,000 delays of over half an hour to handover patients from ambulances into emergency care units: a higher level than this time last year. Bed occupancy is also running at uncomfortably high levels (95%), similar to last year and leaves little room to manoeuvre. These figures unfortunately feel reminiscent of the challenges the NHS faced heading into last year’s incredibly tough winter.”