ALMOST 23,000 people in the Basildon region are waiting for hospital operations, latest figures have shown.

The number of people on NHS waiting lists across England for routine trips such as hip and knee operations soared to 5.12 million at the end of April – the highest level on record.

In the Basildon and Brentwood Clinical Commissioning Group area 22,960 people referred by GPs for treatment were waiting to start hospital treatment equivalent of 11.1 per cent of the population in the area waiting for treatment. Of those waiting, 64.2 per cent had been waiting less than the target time of 18 weeks.

At the end of April, there were 11,281 people across Essex who had been waiting more than a year for treatment. There were also 225 people who had been waiting for more than two years.

Across England, the number of people on NHS England waiting lists grew from 4.95 million at the end of March to 5.12 million in April.

Despite the rise, waiting times across the country have improved.

The proportion waiting less than 18 weeks increased slightly from 64.4 per cent in March to 64.6 per cent in April.

The number of people waiting over a year to begin treatment dropped by more than 50,000 in April from 436,127 to 385,490.

It means 7.5 per cent of those on the list have been waiting more than a year for treatment, and numbers are still much higher than pre-pandemic levels – 1,613 people had been waiting more than a year for treatment in February 2020.

Professor Stephen Powis, national medical director for NHS England, said that despite the extensive disruption to care caused by the pandemic, it was encouraging that the figures show routine operations, cancer and mental health care have now all rebounded sharply.