The Christie Trust: all the key numbers for the NHS Trust in October

A general view of staff on a NHS hospital ward at Ealing Hospital in London. Picture date: Wednesday January 18, 2023.

Thousands of patients were waiting for routine treatment at the Christie Trust in October, figures show.

A health think tank warns the NHS is under "severe strain" despite some progress in reducing the national backlog.

NHS England figures show 3,341 patients were waiting for non-urgent elective operations or treatment at The Christie NHS Foundation Trust at the end of October – down from 3,611 in September, but an increase on 2,650 in October 2022.

None of those had been waiting for longer than a year.

The median waiting time from referral at an NHS Trust to treatment at the Christie Trust was four weeks at the end of October – down from five weeks in September.

Nationally, 7.7 million people were waiting to start treatment at the end of October.

Nuffield Trust Fellow Jessica Morris said: “The slight fall in the number of people waiting for routine NHS treatment is welcome progress. NHS staff got record numbers of patients starting treatment in October, which will have helped finally start to reverse month on month growth of the waiting list.

"While this is good news, it is hard to look past the huge waiting list that remains in place. This drop is only a small fraction (54,000 people), with over 6.4 million people still waiting."

"Overall, the elective waiting list is 370,000 people higher than it was when the prime minister made his pledge to cut long waits at the beginning of the year," she added.

"The reality is that it will take time and a lot of hard work to sustain this momentum, particularly during the difficult winter months to come."

Separate figures show 1.6 million patients in England were waiting for a key diagnostic test in October – the same as in September.

At the Christie Trust, 1,503 patients were waiting for one of nine standard tests, such as an MRI scan, non-obstetric ultrasound or gastroscopy at this time.

Of them, four had been waiting for at least six weeks.

Other figures show cancer patients at the Christie Trust are not being seen quickly enough.