Hundreds more patients on treatment waiting list at United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust

Hundreds more patients joined the waiting list for routine treatment at United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust in August, figures reveal.

The King’s Fund think tank warned the waiting list for planned care in England is continuing to climb towards levels not seen since the waiting times crisis in the 1990s.

NHS England figures show 50,800 patients were waiting for non-urgent consultant-led care at United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust at the end of August – 242 more than 50,558 the month before.

The figure was also an increase of 15% on the 44,027 on the waiting list in August last year.

Across England, the number of people waiting for treatment rose by 109,000 from 5.6 million in July to 5.7 million in August – the highest number since records began in August 2007.

Siva Anandaciva, chief analyst at The King’s Fund, said the upcoming Spending Review must address the pile-up of maintenance issues with NHS buildings and staffing challenges within the service, or “risk undermining efforts to reduce the waiting list backlog”.

He said: “The Government has announced significant, additional funding to support NHS services, but hasn’t yet delivered on promises to increase capital investment in buildings and equipment, or provided the funding required to train and develop the staff needed to address chronic workforce shortages."

NHS rules state that patients referred for non-urgent consultant-led elective care should start treatment within 18 weeks.

But the figures show 21,919 people on the waiting list in August had been waiting longer than this for treatment – up from 20,784 in July and up from 21,502 in August last year.

Of them, 1,093 had been waiting more than a year for treatment, including two who had been waiting for at least two years.