How long patients waited for treatment at Wigan's hospitals in July
Tens of thousands of patients were waiting for routine treatment at Wigan’s hospitals in July, figures show.
Across England, the waiting list for planned hospital treatment has risen for the second month in a row.
It comes after resident doctors in England staged five days of strike action in July, in a dispute with the Government over pay.
NHS England figures show 48,840 patients were waiting for non-urgent elective operations or treatment at Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (WWL) at the end of July – down from 49,368 in June and 57,522 in July.
Of those, 1,807 (four per cent) had been waiting for longer than a year.
The median waiting time from referral at an NHS trust to treatment at WWL was 15 weeks at the end of July – the same as in June.
Nationally, an estimated 7.4m treatments were waiting to be carried out, relating to 6.25m patients, up from 7.37m treatments and 6.23m patients at the end of June.
A total of 191,648 people in England had been waiting more than 52 weeks to start routine hospital treatment at the end of July, down from 191,813 at the end of June.
Some 2.6 per cent of people on the list for hospital treatment had been waiting more than 52 weeks in July, unchanged from the previous month.
Prof Meghana Pandit, NHS national medical director, said: "Industrial action in the NHS is never easy for patients, but despite last month’s disruption record number of cancer patients got the care they needed.
"Urgent ambulance response times were the fastest they’ve been in over four years – even as A&E and ambulance staff saw more patients in August than ever before.
"These results show the NHS is always there for patients — no matter what is thrown its way."
Separate figures show 1.7m patients in England were waiting for a key diagnostic test in July – the same as in June.
At WWL, 14,302 patients were waiting for one of 14 standard tests, such as an MRI scan, non-obstetric ultrasound or gastroscopy.
Of them, 4,790 (33 per cent) had been waiting for at least six weeks.
Other figures show cancer patients at WWL are not being seen quickly enough.
The NHS states 85 per cent of cancer patients urgently referred by a GP should start treatment within 62 days.
But NHS England data shows just 69 per cent of patients urgently referred by the NHS who received cancer treatment at WWL in July began treatment within two months.
That was down from 73 per cent in June, but up from 64 per cent in July last year.
Health and social care secretary Wes Streeting said: "One year ago, I made a promise that we would deliver two million extra appointments in our first year – not only did we do this in just five months, but we have obliterated that target, carrying out over five million.
"That is testament to the relentless efforts of NHS staff across the country, alongside key reforms to get waiting times down for patients.
"Our 10 Year Health Plan will go even further, driving care out of our busy hospitals and into local communities as we deliver the radical transformation required to fix our broken health service."