Hospital waiting list at 6.5 million in England

Nearly 6.5 million people in England are waiting for hospital treatment - a record high, latest NHS figures show.

That represents one in nine people in the population who are waiting for care such as knee and hip replacements and eye surgery.

One in 20 of them has been waiting for more than a year.

But NHS England said there were signs of progress, with fewer people waiting for tests and the number of people waiting more than two years falling.

Tim Mitchell, of the Royal College of Surgeons, agreed, saying there was some "light at the end of the tunnel".

"Surgical teams have been working around the clock to reduce the enormous waiting list which built up during the pandemic.

"However, there are still big challenges ahead. As people return to the NHS, demand is only getting stronger."

He added that there was a need for more staff to increase the amount of surgery that could be done - ministers have warned the waiting list could keep rising until 2024.

The data showed cancer services were also struggling.

Some 21% waited more than two weeks for a check-up with a cancer specialist in April after an urgent referral from a GP.

And 35% waited more than the target time of two months for treatment.

Prof Pat Price, co-founder of Catch Up With Cancer, said: "It defies all reason that government can look at these cancer statistics and not see a crisis. We are desperately short of treatment capacity.

"Increasing diagnosis means nothing if all we do is pile backlog patients onto sky-high waiting lists."

But Prof Sir Stephen Powis, of NHS England, praised "hard-working NHS staff", saying significant progress was being made.

However, he warned there was "no doubt" the NHS was still facing pressures, including an increasing number of Covid patients.