Almost 17,000 people are waiting for treatment at Nuneaton's hospital. Latest figures revealed for the George Eliot Hospital show that 16,917 people are on the waiting list.

But the number could be even higher as the latest publicly available figures are for the month of August. Since that time there have been a number of days of strike action staged by consultants and junior doctors.

According to papers for the hospital's board, the number of people waiting longer than 52 weeks stood at 172 in August. "Leave, Bank Holidays, operational pressures, and the roll over from industrial action have led to cancellations in Oral Surgery, Trauma and Orthopaedic (T&O) and General Surgery and some cancellations due to operational pressures were evident in August 2023," the report states.

Most of those waiting longer than 52 weeks are split between Trauma and orthopaedic (T&O), Oral Surgery, Urology and General surgery. "Plans are being prioritised to treat these patients and reduce the number of 52-week waiters," the board paper explains.

"There has been an impact on RTT [Referral to Treatment] owing to industrial action. The total number of patients waiting for treatment has increased significantly, from 16,075 in July 2023 to 16,917 in August 2023." The 'Eliot is not alone in seeing increasing waiting lists.

Nationally, last month, the waiting list for hospital treatment topped 7.5 million people in England for the first time. This is likely to grow as junior doctors and consultants have today (October 2) started what is a three-day joint walkout in England.

Board members are set to discuss the latest waiting times at the local hospital during a meeting tomorrow (October 3).

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