Sharp rise in patients waiting for NHS treatment

The number of people waiting longer than the 18-week target to start National Health Service treatment has almost doubled since the coalition took power, according to health service statistics.

The last NHS figures to be published before the general election will add fuel to the political debate over the health service. In total, almost 3m people were waiting to start treatment at the end of February, as the service struggled to cope with the longest period of tight budgets since it was founded almost 67 years ago.

The number of patients who waited longer than 18 weeks has risen from 20,662 in May 2010 to 39,466 in February 2015. The Labour party said this was the highest number since the target was introduced in spring 2008.

During February, 87 per cent had started in-patient treatment within 18 weeks of being referred, against a target of 90 per cent. A total of 94.7 per cent of outpatients had begun treatment within that period: the target is 95 per cent.

The average time patients waited in February was 10 weeks for in-patients and more than five weeks for outpatients.

A total of 443 patients yet to start treatment at the end of February 2015 had waited more than 52 weeks.

The coalition government's management of the NHS was called into question by research from the Health Foundation for the Financial Times, which showed annual productivity growth of less than half that required to meet the NHS's own savings targets by the end of the decade.

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But Labour said the 10-week average wait was a record, contrasting it with an average of 8.4 weeks at the time of the last election.

Andy Burnham, shadow health secretary, said David Cameron had promised to keep waiting times low but the figures "show his plan for the NHS has failed. His reorganisation dragged the NHS down to the point where it can no longer meet waiting time targets despite inheriting lists at a record low".

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