Nearly 55,000 people on waiting lists at one of Coventry and Warwickshire's biggest NHS trusts
Sobering figures were released today by the health service
Nearly 55,000 people are now on NHS waiting lists at one of Coventry and Warwickshire's biggest hospital trusts.
New figures have been released by the NHS which show how the pandemic's affected planned care at both University Hospital Coventry & Warwickshire, and Hospital of St Cross in Rugby.
Nationally, a record 6.1 million people were waiting to start treatment at the end of December - the highest number since records began in August 2007.
It comes after Health Secretary Sajid Javid set out plans to help the NHS in England recover from Covid-19, although he has admitted the number of people waiting will continue to rise for another two years.
Some estimates suggest the waiting list could go up at least 50% or almost double before it starts to fall back again.
Among those on the waiting list are people needing scans and tests, hip and knee operations, and cataract surgery.
Thursday's data shows that the number of people having to wait more than 52 weeks to start treatment stood at 310,813 in December, up from 306,996 in the previous month and 39% higher than the number in December 2020.
The Government and NHS England have set an ambition of eliminating all waits of more than a year by March 2025.
A total of 20,065 people in England were also waiting more than two years to start routine hospital treatment at the end of December, up from 18,585 at the end of November and around eight times the 2,608 people who were waiting longer than two years in April last year.
As part of Mr Javid's pledges, all waits of more than two years, except when it is the patient's choice, will be eliminated by this July.
Shadow health secretary Wes Streeting said people are waiting longer than ever before, "often in pain and distress".
"The Conservatives are so incompetent they've come up with a plan that sees patients paying more in tax but waiting longer for care," he said.
"The last Labour government reduced waiting times from 18 months to 18 weeks.
"The next Labour government will secure the future of our NHS, providing the staff it needs to treat patients on time."