Almost 60,000 patients are still in the queue for hospital treatment

Tens of thousands of patients are waiting for routine treatment at hospitals in South Tyneside and Sunderland, new figures show.

- by Gazette Reporter

NHS England figures show 59,244 patients were waiting for non-urgent elective operations or treatment at South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust - which runs South Tyneside District Hospital and Sunderland Royal Hospital - at the end of August.

That is up slightly on the 59,131 in July, but a decrease on 61,280 the same month last year.

Of those, 26 had been waiting longer than a year.

Alison King, director of performance at the Trust, said: "We understand that waiting for treatment can be an incredibly difficult time and our staff continue to work incredibly hard to make sure we see people as quickly as we can.

"We're proud to be recognised as one of the best performing Trusts both regionally and nationally when it comes to waiting times, but we are still striving to do even better."