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Nearly 10 million people in England are currently waiting for NHS hospital care, according to a new survey conducted by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
This figure is significantly higher than the NHS’ estimated figure of 7.6 million and means roughly one in five people in England are currently waiting for care and treatment.
One in five people waiting for NHS care
The ONS survey, conducted in January and February, is the first of its kind to assess the experiences of adults awaiting hospital appointments, tests or medical treatments.
Of the 90,000 adults surveyed, 21% said they were currently waiting for an NHS appointment or treatment. After extrapolating the data, this equates to 9.7 million people.
In total, one quarter (25%) said they had been waiting for six months or more, with 14% waiting longer than a year.
Older people were particularly affected by long waits, with 31% of people aged 70 and over reporting they were currently waiting for an appointment or treatment. This compares to 12% of 16- to 24-year-olds, 18% of 25- to 34-year-olds, 19% of 35- to 49-year-olds and 23% of 50- to 69-year-olds.
The NHS Confederation says it is under “no illusion” that there is a long way to go to drive down waiting lists, and this is a top priority for health leaders and their teams. Rory Deighton, director of the acute network at the NHS Confederation, is now urging the government to put an end to pay disputes so that NHS staff can continue to provide the care patients need.
“Mental health and community services are also struggling with high demand, resulting in more long waits for care outside of the hospital elective care lists. These pressures have been exacerbated by ongoing strike action, with more than 1.4 million appointments and procedures cancelled in the last year. That is why we are urging the government and the BMA to resume talks and find a compromise to end the long-running pay dispute.
“If the NHS is to make the productivity and efficiency improvements needed to tackle the waiting list backlogs and recover performance it needs the right support and resources. That is why we are calling for an extra £6.4 billion a year in capital funding to tackle the repairs backlog and invest in new technology and equipment to improve care and safety for patients,” he said.
One third of patients struggling to book GP appointments
The ONS also asked people about their experiences of booking GP appointments. In total, one third (32%) said it was difficult or very difficult to make contact with their GP practice.
Furthermore, just under a quarter (23%) said their experience at the GP practice was fairly poor or very poor, while 59% said they had a fairly good or very good experience.
The Royal College of GPs says they would like the level of satisfaction with GP services to be “much higher”, but the sector is struggling with high vacancy rates.
Vice Chair of the RCGP Dr Margaret Ikpoh said: “We know how much our patients value the care that GPs and our teams offer, and we share their frustrations when they struggle to access it when they need to.
“Despite years of underfunding and poor workforce planning, hardworking GP teams are still managing to provide a positive experience for most patients … but we want these numbers to be much higher.”
Dr Ikpoh says general practice is struggling with 3% fewer fully qualified, full-time equivalent GPs, and the sector cannot “keep doing more with less.”
“The average number of patients per fully qualified GP continues to rise and is now 2,298. We simply don’t have enough GPs to keep up … and as today’s figures show, it’s our patients feeling the impact most,” she said.
Eight in 10 want to see more funding for general practice
The RCGP is now warning that without significant investment and urgent efforts to both retain existing GPs in the workforce and recruit more, this situation will continue to get worse.
“Our own polling has shown that more than three quarters of the public (78%) support more funding for general practice if it would reduce appointment waiting times, with 84% believing the next government should increase the number of GPs to make it easier to book an appointment. Ahead of the General Election, all political parties need to take heed,” said Dr Ikpoh.