The number of people in England waiting to start routine hospital treatment has risen to a record high, due to the backlog in NHS care as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
Around 5.45 million people were waiting to start treatment at the end of June - the highest since records began in August 2007, NHS England figures released on Wednesday showed.It is an increase of around 150,000 in just a month afterOf those, 68.8% of patients were waiting for treatment to begin within 18 weeks.
However, the latest figures also show that the number of people waiting for more than a year has fallen by 31,930 to 304,803 in June.This is down from 336,733 the previous month and compares with a peak of 436,127 at the end of March. The data also shows 230,110 urgent cancer referrals were made by GPs in England in June - up from the 153,543 reported in the same month last year.