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NHS Waiting Times

ended 08. September 2022

This morning, it's been announced that the number of people in England waiting to start routine hospital treatment has risen to a new record high. A total of 6.8 million people were waiting to start treatment at the end of July, NHS England said. This is up from 6.7 million in June and is the highest number since records began in August 2007.

  • What are your thoughts on this?
  • Are you currently on a waiting list?
  • What can be done to resolve this huge backlog?

If you're happy to be a case study in a national or local newspaper, please let us know. 

3 responses from the Newspage community

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Samuel Mather-Holgate
Independent Financial Adviser at Mather and Murray Financial
Clawing back this waiting list, that got out of control during Covid, is going to be a mammoth task. Truss has just committed to bowing £100billion to pay for energy bills, will she have the nerve to borrow the same again to make a dent here? I think she should- government borrowing rates are still low, and growth should come back to the economy next year if business taxes are kept low. Everyone wants low taxes and high public spending. The only way to deliver this is to get significant growth in the economy. Borrowing now will show she is confident in her plan to deliver this.
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Scott Gallacher
Director at Rowley Turton
The waiting lists are shocking. Rather than wait, clients, family members and even I have paid privately for treatment. Sometimes this is covered by a Private Medical Insurance policy. However, I personally have paid directly for treatment. The treatment I had needed to happen within three weeks of the problem occurring to have any chance of success. And, had I waited for the NHS without going private, I would have missed that window of opportunity.
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Scott Taylor-Barr
Principal Adviser at Barnsdale Financial Management
NHS waiting times being so long not only have a direct impact on the health of the nation overall, they have other, less obvious side effects too. One of those is that it hinders people's ability to get insurance on their life and health, as most insurers will not agree to cover until any pending investigations, treatment or operations are concluded. As the waiting list times get longer, so does the time people have to go without the correct cover being in place. This means that people and their families are having to risk their homes and lifestyle by not being able to get the insurance they need at the time they need it, literally having to gamble their homes and futures that everything will be OK until they are able to resolve the situation. The NHS is an integral part of the UK and as such it is relied upon by many different aspects of the economy, so when the NHS suffers, many other businesses suffer with it.