Hospitals: Waiting Lists
(asked on 12th June 2018) - View Source
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many patients were waiting for a diagnostic test in NHS Trusts on 31 March in each year from 2011 to 2018 inclusive.
NHS England publishes monthly data on diagnostic waiting times which includes the volume of patients waiting for a diagnostic test.
Information on the numbers of patients waiting for a diagnostic test at the end of March in each year from 2011 to 2018 is shown in the following table:
March 2011 | 575,638 |
March 2012 | 625,054 |
March 2013 | 677,731 |
March 2014 | 789,392 |
March 2015 | 842,263 |
March 2016 | 876,329 |
March 2017 | 934,010 |
March 2018 | 981,504 |
Source: NHS England, statistical work areas, total waiting list - diagnostic tests
Demand for diagnostic testing has increased significantly, driven by improvements such as earlier diagnosis of cancer. The majority of patients are being diagnosed and treated promptly against a backdrop of more people being referred and diagnosed than ever before. In 2017/18 the National Health Service carried out 21.9 million diagnostic tests, nearly seven million more than in 2010/11.