Fact check: There are 6.29 million people on the NHS waiting list in England

Labour’s shadow health secretary Wes Streeting has claimed there are 7.5 million people on the NHS waiting list.

In an interview with Sky News, Mr Streeting said: “The fate of millions of people are at stake at this General Election, not least the 7.5 million people on NHS waiting lists.”

Evaluation

There are 6.29 million people on the NHS waiting list in England.

The facts

Mr Streeting said: “What I’m here to talk about and what I can affect change on is the 7.5 million people on an NHS waiting list.”

Later in the interview, with Sky News he repeated the claim: “The fate of millions of people are at stake at this General Election, not least the 7.5 million people on NHS waiting lists.”

Some 6.29 million patients in England were waiting for treatment at the end of March, according to the latest figures available.

However, some of these patients are waiting for multiple treatments, which means that the overall waiting list is larger.

An estimated 7.54 million treatments were waiting to be carried out at the end of March, according to the NHS England figures, but this is not the same as having 7.5 million people on the waiting list, as quoted by Mr Streeting.

Since November 2023, separate figures for treatments and people have been published.

Provision of health services has been a devolved issue since 1999, with Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland assemblies responsible for waiting lists in their areas.

Links

Sky News interview with claim at 22 seconds (archived post and video)

Second interview clip with Sky News (archived post and video)

Latest NHS England performance data (archived)

NHS England announcement on publishing separate figures (archived)

How health services are devolved in the UK (archived)