NHS pressures

Fact checks about waiting lists, unpaid overtime and availability of health care services

12 December 2024

NHS waiting lists: what you need to know

Our regularly updated guide to NHS waiting lists and waiting times.

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8 September 2023

How many people died while on waiting lists?

Apparently contradictory research from Labour and the Times suggests that either 121,000 or 340,000 people died while waiting for treatment in England last year.

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11 July 2023

No clear evidence of a significant fall in average waiting times

The health minister Maria Caulfield said that NHS England waiting times were falling “drastically”. The latest data does not support this.

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14 June 2023

The overall NHS waiting list continues to rise

Rishi Sunak says the government’s “cutting waiting lists”. That’s true in the case of some specific NHS waiting lists, but not for the main list overall.

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14 December 2022

Labour’s analysis on five million ‘denied’ GP appointments fact checked

This widely reported figure is an estimate, based on several assumptions that may not be right.

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15 July 2022

Health minister claims contract yet to be awarded has been ‘procured’—then denies she said it

Maria Caulfield told Parliament that an ambulance service support contract was “procured”—not that “we are procuring” it, as she later claimed. NHS England says this contract has not yet been awarded.

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16 June 2022

Survey of GPs’ retirement plans is not reliable

The GPs who responded were the ones who knew about the survey and chose to participate—who are not necessarily representative of GPs as a whole.

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20 October 2021

Two doctors with same name cause Times letter confusion

A social media post incorrectly claims that a letter written to The Times was from a doctor who died in 2016.

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13 October 2021

Daily Mail report on GPs seeing fewer patients on Fridays needs more context

There are some important caveats to figures showing GP appointments drop off later in the week.

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1 March 2022

Has the NHS had its budget reduced by £30 billion?

Labour claims that the Budget took £30bn out of day to day health spending, this is true if you include the withdrawal of last year’s Covid money.

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