More than 40,000 on GWH routine treatment waiting list

Tens of thousands of patients were waiting for routine treatment at Great Western Hospitals Trust in May.

The data comes as health secretary Wes Streeting said the NHS had been "wrecked".

NHS England figures show 40,756 patients were waiting for non-urgent elective operations or treatment at Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust at the end of May – up from 39,644 in April, and 36,753 in May 2023.

Of those, 1,907 (5%) had been waiting for longer than a year.

The median waiting time from referral at an NHS Trust to treatment at Great Western Hospitals Trust was 16 weeks at the end of May – the same as in April.

Nationally, 7.6m people were waiting to start treatment at the end of May. This was up slightly from 7.57m at the end of March and the first time the NHS waiting list has risen in seven months.

"It’s clear to anyone who works in or uses the NHS that it is broken," Mr Streeting said, as he launched a new probe into conditions in the health service.

"Unlike the last Government, we are not looking for excuses. I am certainly not going to blame NHS staff, who bust a gut for their patients.

"This Government is going to be honest about the challenges facing us, and serious about solving them."

Separate figures show 1.7m patients in England were waiting for a key diagnostic test in May – a rise on 1.6m in April.

At Great Western Hospitals Trust, 9,335 patients were waiting for one of 12 standard tests, such as an MRI scan, non-obstetric ultrasound or gastroscopy at this time.

Of them, 3,090 (33%) had been waiting for at least six weeks.

Other figures show cancer patients at Great Western Hospitals Trust are not being seen quickly enough.

The NHS states 85% of cancer patients with an urgent referral should start treatment within 62 days.

But NHS England data shows just 64% of cancer patients urgently referred to Great Western Hospitals Trust in May began treatment within two months of their referral.

That was up from 63% in April, but down from 68% in May 2023.

Sarah Scobie, deputy director of research at the Nuffield Trust, said the NHS faces an "enormous uphill battle".

"Fixing it will mean addressing the structural vulnerabilities which left the NHS in a weak position going into the pandemic," she added.

She said this will include "...underinvestment in buildings and equipment and improving funding flows to out-of-hospital services like GPs and district nursing."

Professor Sir Stephen Powis, NHS national medical director, said: "Frontline teams are continuing to work exceptionally hard under significant pressure to provide the best care they can for patients, but everyone recognises that access and waiting times are currently far from what the public have a right to expect.

"Despite the challenges, it is vital that people come forward when they have health concerns - a huge amount of work is going on to diagnose more cancers at an earlier stage, so if you do have worrying symptoms, it’s important to see your GP as soon as possible.

"Everyone working in the health service is committed to working with the government, and with patients and the public, to tackle these challenges, to improve performance and quality in core services, and in the longer term to build an NHS fit for the future."