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OPINION: NHS waiting lists in Cambridgeshire hit record high with no sign of improvement
Those of us working in the NHS desperately want to give patients a better service, but we need the support to do so.
NHS waiting lists have hit a record high in Cambridgeshire, with the latest figures for Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (which runs Addenbrooke’s Hospital and the Rosie Hospital) showing that 62,964 people are waiting to start treatment.
The national standard for patients to start treatment within 18 weeks is 92%. This target is being missed across the NHS. Here in Cambridgeshire, just 56% of patients start treatment within 18 weeks.
I work at Addenbrooke’s hospital. I see the result of these record waiting lists first hand. People are not just statistics – these are people in pain, who cannot live a normal life, who live in fear of what the future may bring.
Number four on the Prime Minister’s recent pledge list was to “cut NHS waiting lists” – this promise seems to have evaporated from his pre-prepared responses to the media this week.
Those of us working in the NHS desperately want to give patients a better service, but we need the support to do so.
In response to these latest figures Labour’s Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting said that NHS waiting lists have trebled since the Conservatives came to power 13 years ago.
He added that Rishi Sunak’s pledge to cut waiting lists has effectively been abandoned, with the Prime Minister’s choosing to blame NHS staff instead of fixing the problem himself. An extra million patients are on waiting lists compared to this time last year, forced to put their lives on hold, in pain and discomfort.
To quote West Streeting “The longer we give the Conservatives, the longer patients wait. Labour’s plan to cut waiting lists will get the NHS back on its feet. The last Labour Government reduced waiting times by increasing staff numbers and spreading good practice. We did this before. We will do it again.”
The latest NHS Waiting List figures are published here:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/rtt-waiting-times/rtt-data-2023-24/
Gareth Wright is East Cambridgeshire Labour’s Health spokesperson
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