Surgeons are demanding an NHS “New Deal” to help clear waiting lists as data revealed a record 4.7 million patients are now queueing.
Hospital bosses have warned the NHS England funding settlement needs to be doubled as numbers waiting to start treatment in February are at the highest since records began in August 2007.
The figure is up from 4.6 million in January and includes 387,885 people waiting more than 52 weeks for hospital treatment such as hip and knee replacements and ear, nose or throat surgery.
This compares to just 1,643 people waiting over a year in February 2020.
Tim Mitchell, vice-president of the Royal College of Surgeons, said: “People have been patient... but how much longer can they be expected to wait?
“We need a New Deal for surgery, with investment on a scale last seen in the 2000s.”
The NHS has not met the legal 18-week standard for hospital treatment for five years.
Only 64.5% of patients waiting for hospital treatment were treated within 18 weeks in February.
The Government’s target is 92%.
Chris Hopson, chief executive of NHS Providers, said: “When I talk to trust chief executives... they say it’s beginning to feel like the early 2000s – when there were far too many people on waiting lists, for years not months.
“The solution then was five successive years of real-terms NHS funding increases of over 7% a year. That’s double the amount that’s currently being proposed for NHS funding.”
PM Boris Johnson said: “We’re going to make sure that we give the NHS all the funding that it needs, as we have done throughout the pandemic.”
The UK went in to the pandemic with some of the worst levels of public health in the developed world, which has been used to explain the high death rates.
