Despite the continued pressure on hospitals, the overall waiting list fell for the first time since February. It reduced by around 70,000 in September from 7.64 million to 7.57 million, with the estimated number of patients waiting down more than 77,000 from 6.42 million to 6.34 million. The waiting list is now down 195,000 on September 2023.

However, the monthly performance statistics also show that hardworking staff made considerable progress on cutting waiting lists in September with the backlog falling by 70,000 and staff delivering 7% more treatments than before the pandemic.

Read more – NHSE (14/11/24)