The Facts
The number of NHS patients on waiting lists for routine hospital treatments has reached the highest level since record-keeping began 15 yrs ago.
Over 23k people on the 6.2M-long list have been waiting more than 2 yrs. That number is down by approx. 500 since Jan. but remains much higher than the roughly 2.6k people recorded in Apr. 2021.
The Spin
Right narrative
COVID is causing an inevitable backlog, from which NHS staff are trying to recover by prioritizing the most clinically vulnerable patients. Since Jan., the number of people waiting 2+ yrs for elective surgery has fallen by 75% and things are continuing to improve.
Left narrative
COVID has clearly damaged the NHS. But it's Boris Johnson's neglectful pandemic policies that are ruining it. With the virus unlikely to end any time soon, COVID is causing 28k NHS staff absences every day. The government is failing to acknowledge the severity of the threat COVID continues to pose to the British public and the nation's health system.
