As a junior doctor, I’ve seen the serious knock-on effects of the backlog of 5.5 million people waiting for care in England
It’s embarrassing to tell a patient being discharged from hospital that they can’t be seen for months. Or assure them that you will check with the clinic booking team, when you know there is no capacity. It’s demoralising to work long hours in A&E only to have more people waiting for treatment than when you started your shift. To know so much of your work in the emergency room would be unnecessary if outpatient services were not stretched beyond their limits.
Damaging waiting times have existed for years, caused by the government’s refusal to properly fund the NHS. Waiting times for GP and hospital appointments were the second most common reason given in a 2019 King’s Fund study about why patients were dissatisfied with the NHS. The pandemic has exacerbated this problem. Some 1.2 million people in England have now been waiting over six months for essential services, a figure that is almost five times higher than it was in 2019.
