62,399 waiting for NHS care in BHRUT

NHS
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62,399 waiting for NHS care in BHRUT

Figures from the NHS show that 62,399 people are waiting for NHS treatment across Barking, Havering, and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust. 1,816 people locally have been waiting for more than a year under the watch of three separate Conservative Health Secretaries.

At the outbreak of the Covid pandemic, following a decade of Tory mismanagement there were 4.4 million people on the NHS waiting list in England, then a record high. Nationally, the standard of 92% of people seen within 18 weeks of a referral has not been met since 2016. Now, 1 in every 9 people in England are on the NHS waiting list.

The Conservative Government published its elective care recovery plan for the NHS this week but failed to set out how it would address the workforce shortages the NHS is facing. The plan set the Government’s ambition as beginning to reduce waiting lists in 2024.

Commenting, Jon Cruddas MP for Dagenham & Rainham said: 

“Record numbers of people in my constituency are waiting for care and they are waiting longer than ever before, often in pain and distress.

“Our local health care staff at BHRUT worked heroically throughout the pandemic, but they have been stretched like never before. As the Culture Secretary admits, a decade of Conservative mismanagement left the NHS “wanting and inadequate” when Covid struck, and patients are now left to wait too long as a result.

“Our NHS is crying out for a change in government to give us the fresh start we need.”