{"id":310246,"date":"2025-08-01T21:23:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-01T21:23:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/310246\/"},"modified":"2025-08-01T21:23:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-01T21:23:09","slug":"three-million-on-nhs-england-waiting-lists-have-had-no-care-since-gp-referral-nhs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/310246\/","title":{"rendered":"Three million on NHS England waiting lists have had no care since GP referral | NHS"},"content":{"rendered":"

Almost half of the 6 million people needing treatment from the NHS in England<\/a> have had no further care at all since joining a hospital waiting list, new data reveals.<\/p>\n

Previously unseen NHS<\/a> England figures show that 2.99 million of the 6.23 million patients (48%) awaiting care have not had either their first appointment with a specialist or a diagnostic test since being referred by a GP.<\/p>\n

The Patients Association described the situation as \u201can invisible waiting list crisis\u201d that was \u201cstaggering\u201d in scale, with millions living in limbo, anxious as their health deteriorates.<\/p>\n

The data raises doubts about Keir Starmer\u2019s repeated pledge<\/a> that 92% of patients will be treated within 18 weeks of referral by 2029 \u2013 his key promise to voters on health. The target has not been hit since 2015, and in May just 61% were treated on time.<\/p>\n

In a further sign of how difficult it will be to meet that target, the data shows that a third of the 3 million unseen patients \u2013 1 million people \u2013 have already waited more than 18 weeks without receiving any care.<\/p>\n

It is the first time the phenomenon of \u201cunseen patients\u201d has emerged as part of the huge challenge facing the government in its drive to \u201cget the NHS back on its feet\u201d. Until now debate around the NHS backlog has focused on the number of treatments patients are due to receive and how many are waiting \u2013 currently 7.36m and 6.23m respectively.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf accurate, 3 million people are trapped in an invisible waiting list crisis, stuck without basic diagnostic tests of first appointments while their conditions worsen,\u201d said Rachel Power, the chief executive of the Patients Association.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe scale is staggering, as nearly half of all patients on a waiting list haven\u2019t been seen by anyone. That\u2019s not a healthcare service; that\u2019s a breakdown.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese aren\u2019t just statistics. They\u2019re people checking their phones daily for hospital calls that never come, unable to plan their lives while their symptoms deteriorate.\u201d<\/p>\n

The figures have been collated and analysed by the health data specialist MBI Health<\/a>, which helps dozens of NHS trusts improve their treatment waiting times. It has shared its findings with the Guardian.<\/p>\n

Barry Mulholland, the firm\u2019s founder and a former NHS manager, said the health service should see the waiting list as \u201ca frontlog, not a backlog\u201d, because so many people had not had their \u201cfirst clinical contact\u201d after joining it. In recent years ministers and NHS bosses have made reducing the number of people waiting 12 or 18 months for care their priority.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are so many people who have already waited so long without seeing anyone \u2013 3 million unseen patients who haven\u2019t had their first contact.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnless that\u2019s dealt with, you will never achieve that target of seeing and treating patients within 18 weeks.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom the government\u2019s point of view, the pledge to get back to 18 weeks by 2029 will be really hard to accomplish if this huge group of patients isn\u2019t seen more quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll never clear the waiting list if we don\u2019t fix the point where patients enter the system, and long delays begin,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

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Keir Starmer has pledged that 92% of patients will be treated within 18 weeks of referral by 2029, and in May just 61% were treated on time. Photograph: Toby Melville\/PA Media<\/p>\n

NHS England acknowledged the vast number of people who had had no NHS care since joining the waiting list. Of the 7.3m treatments patients were waiting for, 4.7m \u2013 nearly two-thirds (64%) \u2013 were for people who had not had a first consultation with a specialist or a diagnostic test yet.<\/p>\n

And 1.6m of this 4.7m had already gone beyond the 18-week supposed maximum waiting time for treatment, it added.<\/p>\n

Alison Bennett, a Liberal Democrat health spokesperson, said: \u201cThese figures are harrowing. Behind every one of these numbers is a person in pain, anxious about their health, and desperately waiting for their first contact from a clinician.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis isn\u2019t a problem that appeared overnight; it\u2019s the direct result of the Conservative party mismanaging our NHS for years. It is unacceptable that millions of people are still being left in a state of limbo, while their conditions potentially worsen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ministers would only \u201cfix\u201d the NHS if they overhauled social care to unblock jammed-up hospitals, she added.<\/p>\n

MBI\u2019s analysis also found that the medical specialities with the largest number of unseen patients were ear, nose and throat care, orthopaedics, eye care, gastroenterology and gynaecology. Between 67% and 75% of those waiting lists are made up of such patients, Mulholland added.<\/p>\n

The Department of Health<\/a> and Social Care did not comment on the 3 million unseen patients.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson said only that: \u201cThanks to this government\u2019s record investment, reforms and the hard work of NHS staff, we\u2019ve cut the waiting list by over 260,000 since July 2024, which also fell for the first time in 17 years in April and May outside the pandemic. On top of this, we have also delivered 4.6m appointments \u2013 more than double the 2m we promised.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis government is delivering the fundamental reform needed to turn our NHS around, and our 10-year health plan will build on this progress, to ensure we meet our target that 92% of patients wait no longer than 18 weeks for treatment by March 2029.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Almost half of the 6 million people needing treatment from the NHS in England have had no further…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":310247,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4316],"tags":[105,4348,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-310246","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-healthcare","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114955616520754117","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310246","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=310246"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310246\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/310247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=310246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=310246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=310246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}