NHS waiting list FINALLY shrinks but Rishi Sunak warns massive backlog of 7.7million ops will still grow this winter amid looming threat of strikes

The NHS waiting list has fallen for the first time in a year, but the loss of trainee doctors could hold back progress and reduce the waiting list further, the Prime Minister has warned.

Healthcare data shows that 7.7 million appointments and operations remained to be performed in October – a drop of 65,000 from last month.

Rishi Sunak, who made reducing waiting lists one of his priorities for 2023, today said the NHS was making 'good progress in tackling the backlog'.

However, the Prime Minister warned that nine days of strikes by trainee doctors over Christmas and New Year will make it 'difficult' to further reduce the list. He urged medics, who earn up to £60,000, to 'do the right thing' and call off their industrial action.

Separate figures show flu and winter vomiting virus norovirus are putting further pressure on hospitals, with the number of patients using NHS beds rising by two-thirds in just one week.

Data from NHS England shows that the waiting list fell by 0.8 percent in October.

However, the 7.71 million toll marks one of the highest figures since NHS registrations began in August 2007 and an increase of 490,000 from October 2022.

By comparison, around 4.4 million people were stuck in the system when the pandemic reached Britain.

About 377,618 patients had to wait at least a year, which is slightly less than the 391,122 a month earlier.

The NHS has been ordered to eliminate all waiting times over a year by March 2025.

Figures also show that in September 190 patients had been queuing for more than two years, compared to 227 a month earlier.

The NHS was told to scrap two-year waiting times by July 2022, except for patients who do chose to wait longer, did not want to travel to be seen more quickly, or for very complex cases requiring specialist treatment.

Asked whether he had failed to deliver on the government's pledge to cut NHS waiting lists by the end of the year, Mr Sunak said the NHS has 'made progress' by cutting the backlog for the longest waiters to work.

However, he said industrial action by NHS staff “has made that difficult”.

While consultants are now considering a government pay rise of up to £20,000 for this financial year, trainee doctors, who earn up to £60,000, have rejected the government's latest offer and plan to strike for nine days over Christmas and the holidays . New Year.

Thousands of trainee doctors will leave their posts three days before Christmas, starting at 7am on December 20. Another six days of action – the longest in the healthcare system's 75-year history – are planned from 7am on January 2.

Trainee doctors have called the government's three percent increase, on top of the average increase of 8.8 percent they already secured this summer, 'completely insufficient'.

Mr Sunak said: '(It is) disappointing that junior doctors are still threatening industrial action, while everyone else has reached a settlement with the Government.

'It is difficult to clear the backlog when people are on strike.

“I think we'll see that in recent weeks, without industrial action, people will start to see progress in reducing the waiting list.”

He added: 'We need people to be in work so I urge trainee doctors to consider the Government's offer. Everyone else has made a deal and it's really up to them to do the right thing.”

Separate weekly NHS data shows winter viruses are putting an increasing number of Britons in hospital.

Last week, an average of 402 people were in hospital with flu every day, an increase of 72 percent in just one week.

With the exception of last year, flu admissions are at the highest level since 2015.

Meanwhile, 506 patients had norovirus – a 25 percent increase from seven days earlier. In addition, norovirus cases led to an average of 114 beds being closed per day to prevent the highly contagious disease, which causes vomiting and diarrhea, from spreading to other patients.

The rising number of seasonal bugs in the population is having a knock-on effect on the capacity of the NHS, with an average of 49,020 staff absent per day last week.

Professor Sir Stephen Powis, medical director of NHS England, said medics have “pulled out all the stops” and that is “reflected in today's figures”.

“While the sheer volume of care our employees are providing to patients is incredible, we know we still face a challenging winter on a number of fronts,” he said.

This includes the spike in the number of patients with winter viruses, difficulties in discharging patients who are able to leave hospital and industrial action, Professor Powis said.

Rory Deighton, acute network director at the NHS Confederation, the membership organization for the healthcare system, said: 'The increase in winter viruses such as flu and norovirus and staff absenteeism is a concern and a sign that the pressure will only increase as we get deeper into the cold season.

'While the efforts trusts have made to prepare for winter have paid off, including around 1,500 more beds than last year, services can only cope with so much before patient safety can be compromised.

“Bed occupancy is still high, despite more beds, and delayed discharges remain a major challenge.”

Separate NHS ambulance figures data for November today showed response times improved slightly.

Heart attack or stroke patients, known as category two callers, had to wait an average of 38 minutes and 30 seconds before paramedics arrived on the scene.

This is three minutes faster than October, but still more than twice as long as the 18-minute target.

The average response time for category one – calls from people with life-threatening illnesses or injuries – was 8 minutes and 32 seconds. This is eight seconds faster than the month before. However, the target time is seven minutes.

Meanwhile, weekly NHS data shows that one in three patients who arrived at hospitals by ambulance last week waited more than 30 minutes to be transferred to A&E.

There were 28,498 delays of half an hour or more recorded across all hospital trusts in the week before December 10, representing 34 per cent of all handovers.

In one week, this figure has risen from 25 percent.

NHS rules state that the process must be completed within 15 minutes and that no procedure should take longer than an hour. Long transfer delays can leave ambulances queuing outside hospitals for hours, rather than responding to incoming calls.

Earlier, the Prime Minister said the Government would keep a “close eye” on ambulance delays when asked how bad they would become.

Mr Sunak said the NHS has started planning for winter earlier than ever and has secured an extra £1 billion in funding to expand A&E departments, put more ambulances on the road and ensure patients are discharged from the hospital on time.

'That all makes a difference and we have seen significant improvements since this time last year. But of course we will be monitoring it closely and working closely with the NHS to get everyone the care they need,” he added.