Labour will take 40 years to meet NHS waiting list target at current treatment rate - with list now standing at 7.27m

By SHAUN WOOLLER, EXECUTIVE HEALTH EDITOR Published: 22:12, 13 August 2026 | Updated: 22:12, 13 August 2026 Labour will take 40 years to meet the NHS waiting list target at the rate it has been treating patients, a damning new analysis suggests. It means Britons face decades more misery, with painfully long waits for routine care, such as hip and knee replacements. The Government has vowed to treat 92 per cent of patients within 18 weeks of receiving a GP referral by March 2029. That would require the waiting list to fall from 7.27million now to around 3.5million, a rate of 114,000 a month. But official NHS England figures show it managed to cut the waiting list by an average of just 7,962 per month over the past year despite burning through billions of pounds of record funding. Assuming other things remain unchanged, it will take 40 years to get the waiting list down to 3.5million at this pace - significantly more than the three years ministers have left to deliver. Stuart Andrew, the Conservative shadow health secretary, said: '40 years to meet Labour's own NHS waiting list target shows just how far they are falling short. 'Labour are more interested in headline grabbing rather than bringing down waiting lists. Stuart Andrew, the Conservative shadow health secretary, said: '40 years to meet Labour's own NHS waiting list target shows just how far they are falling short.' 'Patients need treatment and action now. 'Labour must stop pretending its failing waiting list plan is working and get a grip on the crisis in our NHS.' The NHS managed to remove 110,000 people from the waiting list in March alone, allowing then health secretary Wes Streeting to boast he had met his interim target of treating 65 per cent of patients within 18-weeks by the end of that month. But that was achieved by offering hospitals 'sprint' funding so they could temporarily perform more operations and by giving them millions of pounds in bonuses for deleting patients from lists without treating them - supposedly because they had died, paid to go private or no longer needed care. Health experts warned the initiatives were unsustainable and were proved right when waiting lists increased by 172,000 over the next two months. Sarah Woolnough, chief executive of The King's Fund think tank, said: 'The government met its interim target for 18-week waits in March, but waiting lists rising by almost 170,000 since then demonstrates how fragile this progress has been. 'The NHS continues to face record levels of demand, compounded by the ongoing series of heatwaves. 'The way the 65 per cent target was originally hit could also account for this trend. Sarah Woolnough, chief executive of The King's Fund think tank, had warned it was unlikely the progress seen in March could be sustained. 'Post March, 'sprint' funding has dried up meaning there are fewer resources available to NHS trusts to cut waiting lists. 'We warned at the time that the NHS could not sprint its way to a lasting solution and taking this approach to secure a sustainable fall in waiting lists would prove challenging.' Some 65.8 per cent of patients began hospital treatment within 18 weeks of referral in June, the latest month available. Meanwhile, the number of patients waiting more than a year to start treatment rose slightly from 104,734 to 105,711, although those facing the longest waits of 18 months or more fell from 1,144 to 1,099. It comes as health officials revealed there were a record 2.5million A&E attendances in July, amid two heatwaves. However, 75.4 per cent of A&E patients were seen within four hours -up from 75.0 per cent in June. The number of people waiting more than 12 hours from a decision to admit to actually being admitted stood at 47,438, down from 49,466. Furthermore, an average of 2,300 patients received corridor care in A&E departments in England each day in July, along with 728 patients elsewhere in hospital wards, totalling 3,028. Health secretary Yvette Cooper thanked NHS staff for 'their extraordinary efforts over this hugely challenging summer'. The data covers patients who have been receiving corridor care for at least 45 minutes. This means care did not take place in a clinically appropriate and safe setting where patients have privacy, access to food, water and toilets, and lights can be turned off and noise levels minimised to allow sleep. Yvette Cooper thanked NHS staff for 'their extraordinary efforts over this hugely challenging summer' and warned the health service must start planning for summer pressures in the same way as winter. The health secretary said: 'Despite the extreme heat and record demand that NHS staff have faced, more than three quarters of patients were seen within four hours in A&E, a record 2.65 million diagnostic tests and checks were carried out in a single month, and the waiting list has fallen in the month of June for the first time since 2011. 'But today's figures also show how much of an additional burden is placed on the NHS during periods of extreme heat, and I have made clear that we must start planning for summer pressures in the NHS in the same way we do for winter.' Dr Ragit Varia, president-elect of the Society for Acute Medicine, said: 'From permawinter to permaheat, there is no longer a quiet season for the NHS.' And Helen Morgan, Liberal Democrat health spokesperson, said: 'Labour isn't working for our NHS.'