Patients are being urged to shop around on the NHS app and website to cut their waiting time for treatment in England.
But hospitals warned staffing shortages still needed to be tackled to make the biggest impact on waits. Ministers believe that by searching the list of different hospitals, patients will be able to reduce their waits - potentially by up to three months, research suggests. Rachel Power, of the Patients Association, said the move will "make it easier" for patients to use their long-established right to choose.While progress has been made on the very longest waits, the number of operations being done is still below pre-pandemic levels. This is because hospitals have struggled to get back to full capacity, mainly because of staffing shortages, more emergency patients and problems discharging patients because of the lack of care in the community.