Almost £6bn expected to tackle record NHS waiting list

Chancellor Rishi Sunak is expected to announce almost £6 billion to tackle England’s record NHS waiting list.

Its has been reported that the chancellor will unveil plans for investment in NHS capital funding this week to help deliver approximately 30 per cent more elective activity by 2024-25 compared to pre-pandemic levels. The number of people waiting for hospital treatment has hit 5.7 million as the health service struggles to clear the growing backlog of care worsened by the pandemic.

The waiting list is now rising by about 100,000 a month as more people who did not seek or could not access NHS treatment over the past 18 months visit a GP and are referred to hospital. The number of patients waiting more than two years has risen to nearly 10,000.

Health leaders are widely expected to welcome the funding, but Dr Layla McCay, director of policy at the NHS Confederation, added that it still ‘falls short’ of what is needed ‘to get services completely back on track’.

To address the backlog of people waiting for checks, tests and scans, and help get waiting lists down, £2.3 billion of the funding package will be used to try to transform diagnostic services. There will be at least 100 ‘one-stop-shop’ community diagnostic centres across England, including the 44 already announced. These centres are expected to help clear most existing test backlogs worsened by the pandemic, including for CT, MRI and ultrasound scans, by the end of the Parliament.

The funding will also include £1.5 billion for increased bed capacity, equipment and new surgical hubs to tackle waiting times for elective surgeries. A total of £2.1 billion of the £5.9 billion total will be invested in technology and data in a bid to improve efficiency and security within the NHS.

The Autumn Budget is being delivered soon 27 October.