NHS waiting lists have sky-rocketed to a new record high amid warnings the health service is already at ‘breaking point’ before winter pressures have truly kicked-in.
Official figures show 7.1million people in England were in the queue for routine hospital treatment, such as hip and knee operations, by the end of September — the equivalent of one in eight people. The figure includes more than 400,000 people who have been waiting, often in pain, for over one year.
The data