Covid-19: Record 4.7 million people waiting for hospital treatment in England

A total of 4.7 million people were waiting for routine operations or procedures at the end of February 2021, "despite the fall in Covid cases", new data reveals.

It is the most people waiting for treatment recorded by NHS England since records began in August 2007.

New data published by NHS England highlighted the number of people who had been waiting more than a year for hospital treatment was 387,885 in February - the highest number since December 2007.

A year ago in February 2020, the number of those having to wait more than 52 weeks to start treatment stood at just 1,613.

NHS England national medical director Professor Stephen Powis said: “Treating 400,000 patients with Covid-19 over the course of the last year has inevitably had an impact on the NHS, but it is a testament to the hard work and dedication of staff that they managed to deliver almost two million ops and procedures in the face of the winter wave and improve waiting times for them, along with A&E and ambulance services.”

Figures also showed the number of people admitted for routine hospital treatment was down 47 per cent in February compared with a year earlier.

This 'illustrates the catastrophic impact of Covid-19 on cancer diagnosis and treatment'

Cancer charities are worried the Covid-19 pandemic has had a “catastrophic” impact on NHS services as the figures reveal a total of 174,624 urgent cancer referrals were made by GPs in England in February 2021, compared with 190,369 in February 2020 a fall of eight per cent, although February 2020 had an extra day due to the leap year.

It follows a year-on-year fall of 11 per cent in January but an increase of seven per cent in December 2020. Urgent referrals where breast cancer symptoms were present were down from 13,627 in February 2020 to 12,199 in February 2021, a fall of 10 per cent.

February saw 22,000 people begin treatment for cancer, in line with February 2020.

Sara Bainbridge, head of policy at Macmillan Cancer Support, said the data “further illustrates the catastrophic impact of Covid-19 on cancer diagnosis and treatment.”

“Tens of thousands of people are still missing a diagnosis due to disruption caused by the pandemic, which could affect their prognosis.”

Cancer Research are concerned there are thousands of people who have not yet been “diagnosed or treated” for cancer.

Kruti Shrotri, Cancer Research UK’s head of policy, said: “While it’s positive that urgent cancer referrals didn’t plummet like they did in the first wave, these February figures show the cancer backlog continues to build. There are thousands of people who have cancer but haven’t yet been diagnosed or treated – waiting far too long.

“The NHS will need to operate at above pre-pandemic levels to give them the care they need.”

'This data shows pressure is high and growing despite the fall in Covid cases'

Emergency admissions to A&E departments at hospitals in England also showed a rise last month, up from 427,968 in March 2020 to 503,913 last month.

The year-on-year change will have been affected by the lower than usual numbers for March 2020. The equivalent figure for March 2019, a non-pandemic year, was 555,457.

Dr Susan Crossland, president of the Society for Acute Medicine, said: “This data shows pressure is high and growing despite the fall in Covid cases and this was prior to the country starting to come out of lockdown.

“Just this week the workload in acute medical units has felt to many like the pre-pandemic ‘eternal winters’ we had been working through for too long.

“The scale of pressure on the system is illustrated by the fact the number waiting more than 12 hours in an ED (emergency department) last month has doubled compared to March in 2019 pre-pandemic despite overall attendances and admissions being vastly reduced.”

'Hundreds of thousands of patients waiting for routine surgery such as hip and knee operations'

The new data also shows almost 330,000 patients had been waiting more than six weeks for a key diagnostic test in February.

A total of 327,663 patients were waiting for one of 15 standard tests, including an MRI scan, non-obstetric ultrasound or gastroscopy, NHS England said.

The equivalent number waiting for more than six weeks in February last year was 29,832 and the monthly total peaked at 571,459 in May 2020.

Tim Mitchell, vice-president of the Royal College of Surgeons of England said: “The NHS had a brutal start to the year because of the second wave of Covid-19, and this is reflected in today’s figures.”

“Although we did see the number of patients with Covid-19 decline in February, hospitals were still under huge pressure due to having to separate Covid and non-Covid care, staff having to isolate or being ill with the virus, and the massive resource needed to support the essential national vaccination effort.

“Although the most urgent operations, for cancer and life-threatening conditions, went ahead, hundreds of thousands of patients waiting for routine surgery such as hip and knee operations, cochlear implants and vascular operations had their treatment cancelled or postponed.”

NHS England also highlighted staff had delivered almost two million operations and other elective care in January and February, one of the busiest periods of the pandemic.