58k patients still on hospital waiting lists despite a slight drop in backlog

Tens of thousands of people are waiting for treatment at hospitals in Sunderland and South Tyneside despite a slight reduction in the backlog.

- by Echo Reporter

NHS England figures show 58,707 patients were waiting for non-urgent elective operations or treatment at South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust - which runs Sunderland Royal Hospital and South Tyneside District Hospital - at the end of September.

This was down from 59,244 in August, and the 61,098 in September last year.

Of those, 18 had been waiting for longer than a year.

The average waiting time from referral to treatment at the Trust was nine weeks at the end of September-down from 10 in August.

Nationally, an estimated 7.4 million treatments were waiting to be carried out at the end of September, relating to 6.2 million patients - also down slightly from the number of treatments and patients at the end of August.