Please see below for a template press release on NHS waiting lists by area. Please localise accordingly.
Use this spreadsheet and use the waiting list tab to find the relevant data.
Ministers letting [AREA] “grind to a halt” as [TAB 1 - COLUMN D] on NHS waiting lists
There are [TAB 1 - COLUMN D] incomplete patient pathways on a waiting list in [AREA] - the equivalent of [TAB 1 - COLUMN E] per 1,000 patients
Local Lib Dems accuse the government of letting [AREA] “grind to a halt”
There are [TAB 1 - COLUMN E ] incomplete patient pathways on NHS waiting lists per 1,000 patients in [AREA], research from the House of Commons Library, commissioned by the Liberal Democrats has revealed.
The Liberal Democrats said the “terrifying” figures show Ministers have let [AREA] “grind to a halt” under the pressure of growing NHS backlogs, with [TAB 1 - COLUMN D] incomplete pathways on NHS waiting lists.
The party has criticised the Conservative government for failing to prioritise the NHS in the recent Autumn Statement despite the huge economic impact of people unable to return to work because they are waiting for treatment.
Separate ONS figures show that a record high 2.6 million people are inactive across the country are out of work due to long-term sickness, up from two million in 2019.
The Liberal Democrats have set out a plan to fix the crisis in NHS and care, including giving people a legal right to see their GP within seven days, increasing the Carer’s Minimum Wage to tackle soaring vacancies, and giving people a guarantee to begin cancer treatment within 62 days of being diagnosed.
Liberal Democrat spokesperson for [AREA], [NAME] said:
“People in [AREA] deserve an NHS that is there to look after them when they are in need. Instead, this Conservative government has run our local health services into the ground.
“It should not be too much to ask for people in [AREA] to be able to get a GP appointment when they need one or get the treatment they deserve in time.
“That is why the Liberal Democrats are calling for urgent investment in the NHS to bring down waiting lists as the health service prepares for yet another winter crisis under this Conservative government.
“The Prime Minister’s abject failure to bring down the NHS backlogs like he promised is having real consequences for our community. Far too many people are being made to suffer unnecessarily at the hands of the Conservative party’s incompetence.”
ENDS
Notes to Editors
Full figures from the House of Commons Library available here. The data provided was ‘patients waiting for hospital treatment at sub-ICB level’.
NHS data shows around 6.5 million people are waiting for 7.8 million courses of elective hospital treatment in England.
This means the actual number of patients on waiting lists at local level is likely to be slightly lower than the number of Incomplete Patient Pathways given by the Commons Library.
The numbers are not patients waiting as a percentage population since the Referral To Treatment waits might not reflect a single patient.
Therefore, the appropriate interpretation of this would be to present the waiting list numbers (incomplete pathways) as a rate per 1,000 population rather than as percentage of the population.
Data on those who are economically inactive due to long-term sickness