The BMA chair of council, Dr Chaand Nagpaul, said: “These alarming figures show the scale of the challenge facing the NHS. As demand increases and waiting times rise, many more patients are left waiting longer for care. It says there could be an average of 5.2 million patients on the elective treatment waiting list by then – up from 3.9 million – for operations such as cataract removal, hernia repair or hip or knee replacement. There could be as many as 300,000 people a month waiting more than four hours at A&Es by December, according to the BMA analysis. This could exceed 400,000 by 2020, meaning more than a fifth of patients attending emergency wards waiting more than four hours.

Source: The Guardian October 29, 2017 13:52 UTC