NHS waiting lists rise for first time in six months as 3,000 patients treated in corridors or makeshift areas each day
The waiting list for routine hospital treatment in England has risen for the first time in six months.
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An estimated 7.22 million treatments were waiting to be carried out at the end of April, relating to 6.11 million patients, NHS figures show.
This is up from 7.11 million treatments and 6.02 million patients at the end of March.
The increase means the size of the list has returned to where it stood in February, reversing the fall that took place in March.
An estimated 99,781 people in England had been waiting more than a year to start routine hospital treatment at the end of April, up from 94,406 at the end of March.
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Some 1.4% of people on the list for hospital treatment had been waiting more than 52 weeks in April, up from 1.3% the previous month.
The Government and NHS England had set a target of March this year for the figure to be reduced to less than 1%.
Some 65.0% of patients in England in April began hospital treatment within 18 weeks of referral, down slightly from 65.3% in March.
The Government and NHS England set an interim target of March this year for the figure to reach 65.0%.
It comes as nearly 3,000 patients every day were cared for in hospital corridors or makeshift treatment areas in England last month, official data has revealed.
NHS England published figures for the first time on “corridor care”, with one expert saying they “confirm the scale of something that should never have been normalised in the NHS”.
A patient is classed as receiving corridor care if their treatment does not take place in a clinically appropriate and safe setting.
The criteria used for defining an appropriate setting includes things such as patients having privacy, access to food, water and toilets, and whether lights can be turned off and noise levels minimised to allow sleep.
Overall, there were an average of 2,241 instances each day in May of a patient receiving corridor care for more than 45 minutes at hospital A&E departments.
This includes patients receiving treatment, or waiting for assessment, admission or transfer, but not delays involving ambulances handing over patients to A&E staff.
There were a further 699 instances on average each day last month of patients receiving corridor care for more than 45 minutes inside hospital wards.