The number of people waiting for non-emergency care has risen slightly between May and June this year, although it is a long way off the October peak of 2022. Statistics show that there were 112,638 on the city’s elective care waiting lists in June, the latest figures available from the NHS show.
This compares with 111,037 the previous month. The number when the list was at its peak, 130,832 - was in October 2022 during the pandemic. The uptick from May to June reflects the rest of the country, where waiting lists across England have risen in June, as the latest data reveals the state of the NHS inherited by the new government. There were a total of 7.62 million people on the NHS’s waiting lists in England in June, according to research by the Reach Data Unit.
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Of the 112,638 on the waiting list in June, 46,038 have been waiting more than 18 weeks for treatment. The number of people waiting over a year for treatment at University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust stood at 2,176 in June, and people currently on the list have been waiting an average of 14.61 weeks.
A Trust spokesperson said: "The 18 plus week waiting list represented 1.9 per cent of the national waiting list in April 2023. In April 2024 that had dropped to 1.5 per cent and UHL's 18-week plus position had reduced by 19 per cent compared with a national increase of 2 per cent."
In terms of cancer waiting times, 81.05 per cent of patients wait less than a month from a decision to treat to a first treatment for cancer. This compares to the England average of 90.9 per cent. The NHS target is 96 per cent.
You can see the timeline of waiting lists here:
The Trust spokesperson added it is the fourth largest provider of cancer care in the UK and the eighth largest provider of diagnostics. It said there had been significant progress in cancer waiting times over the last 18 months, including the reduction of a backlog of patients waiting longer than 62 days from its highest point in November 2022 by more than 70 per cent.
The trust said it had also improved access to cancer diagnosis and has been consistently achieving the faster diagnosis standard - diagnosing more than 75 per cent of patients within 28 days of urgent suspected cancer referral - since September 2024.
Across England, a total of 302,693 people have been on the waiting list for over a year. That’s down from 307,500 people in May and 383,083 people in June of last year.
In terms of ambulance response times, East Midlands Ambulance Service (Emas) is currently ranking 7th out of 11 services, with them not meeting target in three of the four category areas. The ambulance service said handover delays are not just an ambulance and hospital issue, but also reflect wider pressure across the NHS and social care systems.
UHL’s Chief Operating Officer, Jon Melbourne said: “While the number of people on our waiting lists increased slightly during June, the length of time people are waiting for treatment at our hospitals continues to decrease. From month-to-month there will be fluctuations in the overall number and that can be impacted by a range of things such as the number of referrals we receive. However, targeted action here in Leicester means we have made the most progress of any Trust in the country over the last 12 months.
“Our biggest improvements are in the elimination of two year waits and 77 per cent reduction in waits of over a year. New developments like the East Midlands Planned Care Centre (EMPCC) - opening at the Leicester General Hospital in December - will mean we can continue to bring waiting lists down. The EMPCC will treat around 100,000 patients a year once fully operational.
“We know that long waits impact on people and their quality of life. That is why our focus, alongside partners, is to continue to make nationally leading progress for patients and communities as we work towards the NHS England target of no-one waiting more than a year for treatment by March 2025.”
Susannah Ashton, Divisional Director for Leicestershire at Emas said: “We continue to lose a large number of hours to patient handover delays across the region, with 13,084 hours lost across the East Midlands in June.
“Handover delays are not an ambulance and hospital only issue; they are a symptom of wider pressures across the NHS and social care systems. Our priority is of the safe, quality care of our patients. We continue to work with partners to reduce the negative impact of delays on patients and our staff.
“We ask the public to use NHS services wisely. 999 should be used for life-threatening emergencies. If not, use alternative services, including NHS 111, pharmacies, GPs or urgent treatment centres.”
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